- [Narrator] There are many different ways
to transform layers in Photoshop.
However, some of them are a bit more flexible than others.
When I open this file
and I'm working on the background layer,
if I wanna make a transformation and I choose edit,
we'll notice that both free transform and transform
are grayed out.
While I could choose select all
and then select transform, and then maybe scale,
if I transform this,
Photoshop is going to fill this background area
with my background color, in this case, white.
So I'll click cancel
to cancel out of that transformation.
Use command + D to deselect.
To convert the background into a layer,
I'll click on the lock icon,
then I can choose edit, transform, and then scale.
However, if I scale the image now
and I apply this transformation,
Photoshop is going to discard all of the information.
So if I wanted to scale it up later,
it would have to make up information.
So again, I'll cancel out of this,
and then I'm going to convert my layer
to a smart object by choosing layer, smart objects,
convert to smart object.
Or on the layers panel,
I could right click and just choose
convert to smart object.
I wanna create a picture in a picture,
so I'll duplicate the smart object
using layer, new, and then layer via copy
or using the keyboard shortcut command + J on Mac
or control + J on windows.
I'll hide the visibility of layer zero
and keep layer one as the active or targeted layer.
Now let's take a look at all of the different
free transform options.
I'll choose edit, transform,
and we'll start with scale.
I can drag any of the corner points in order to scale,
which will transform my image while maintaining proportions.
If I want to transform freely,
I can add the shift key and drag any of the anchor points.
You'll notice that as I'm dragging,
we see a HUD or a heads up display
that gives me the width and height
in whatever units of measurement I have selected
for my rulers.
You can turn this off under preferences, tools,
show transformations.
You can choose a different position
or choose to never show the heads up display.
But I'm gonna leave it on for now.
If I want to transform from the center of the image,
I'll hold down the option key on Mac
or the alt key on Windows, and then drag and we can see
that it's getting larger or smaller
based on the center of the image.
If I want to access a different transformation,
we can select it under the edit menu,
transform, and then choose one from the list.
I'll select rotate,
position my cursor outside of the bounding box.
I'll see the double headed arrows
and I can click and drag in order to rotate.
If you position your cursor too far away,
you'll notice that the icon changes to the arrow.
If I were to click right now,
Photoshop would automatically apply this transformation,
so just be a little careful
when you're doing things like rotate.
If I ever want to remove the angle that I've rotated,
I can simply select it in the options bar,
tap zero in order to remove it.
By default, Photoshop is transforming
around the center of the image
because that's where the default reference point is.
Now I have my reference point turned on
because I've got this option checked right here,
but by default the reference point is off.
However, it's still in the center,
so it would transform around that.
To enable the reference point and make it visible,
we can click here to enable it,
and we can choose a different reference point,
either by clicking on any of the anchor points
here in the options bar or I can drag the reference point
by just moving it in the image area,
or I can hold down the option key or the alt key
and click in order to set a different reference point.
Now you'll notice if I rotate the image,
it doesn't rotate around the center.
It rotates around that reference point.
In order to set it back in the center,
I'll click in the center of icon in the options bar.
To reposition a layer,
we can drag anywhere inside
of the transformation bounding box
and just reposition it.
Now I can continue to return to the edit menu
and then choose additional options here,
but it might be easier to just right click
anywhere within the transformation area
and select the different transformation that you want.
If I choose skew,
I'll select one of these center anchor points
and drag left or right to skew the image.
If I wanna change the perspective,
I'll select it and then drag one of the corner points.
And if I want to freely distort any of the anchor points,
I can choose distort
and then select one of the corner points
in order to distort my image.
We can also use that right click
or the contact sensitive menus
to rotate as well as flip our images.
All right, I've made sort of a mess,
so I'm gonna tap the escape key to escape out of here,
and we're gonna apply a simple transformation
just to make the photo smaller within the document.
Instead of choosing edit and then transform,
I can just use the keyboard shortcut
command + T or control + T to access free transform.
I'll hold down the option or the alt key
and just scale this down a bit.
I'll tap return or enter
in order to apply that transformation,
and we can see the checkerboard representing transparency
around this image.
I'm going to turn that off
by selecting preferences, and then transparency and gamut.
On Windows it would be under edit, preferences,
and then transparency and gamut.
And I'm going to set the grid size to none.
I'll click OK, and now this area is still transparent,
but it's going to be represented by white.
I'll toggle on the visibility of layer zero,
select it, and then use the opacity slider
in order to decrease the opacity of that layer.
Then, to get some separation between the two layers,
I'll select layer zero copy,
and from the bottom of the layers panel,
click the effects icon, select drop shadow.
I'll make the drop shadow a little bit more opaque.
And then to change both the angle as well as the distance,
I'll just click in the image area
and drag to reposition the drop shadow.
To soften the edge, I'll increase the size.
Then I'll click OK in order to add that drop shadow.
A few additional options I wanna mention before we wrap up.
If you want to scale or rotate numerically,
once you select free transform,
in this case I'll use command + T,
you'll notice that we can add values for position,
as well as scale and angle in the options bar.
And after transforming an image,
you can use the edit menu to select transform,
and transform again.
In fact, if you hold down the option key
or the alt key on Windows,
Photoshop will make a duplicate at the same time
as applying the same transformation.
And although we were using a photograph in this example,
you can use the same transformation techniques
when working on any type of layers,
including shape layers, type layers, and more.