In this video,
I'm going to show you how to change the perspective of anything in Photoshop.
Hi.
Welcome back to the Photoshop Training Channel.com.
I'm Jesus Ramirez.
In this video, I'm going to show you how to use the Perspective Warp tool in Photoshop.
This tutorial is going to be divided into three sections.
In the first section, I'll go over how the Perspective Warp tool works.
You can think of it as a guide.
In the second section, I'll show you how you can use Perspective Warp
to change the perspective of objects in your photo.
And, in the third and final section,
I'll show you how you can use Perspective Warp to improve your composites.
Okay.
Let's get started.
We're going to start with this document.
It contains two layers, a background layer, and this layer with a crate.
I've already masked the background, so we're only working with the actual crate and not
the rest of the image.
I'm going to right-click on the layer and convert it into a Smart Object because we
always want to work non-destructively and, luckily for us, the Perspective Warp tool
works with Smart Objects.
And you can tell you have a Smart Object when you look at the layer thumbnail.
If you see this Smart Object icon on the bottom right,
that means that you're working with a Smart Object.
Now I'm going to go into Edit,
Perspective Warp.
This will get us into the Perspective Warp,
which is a tool that we can use to change
the perspective of objects in photos.
From the options bar, you can see that we're currently in the Layout Mode.
The Layout Mode allows you to create quads to define the perspective of your image.
Start by clicking-and-dragging on a corner of an object in your image to create a perspective grid.
These grids are called quads.
You have to match the quad to the perspective of your image.
You can click-and-drag on the corner pins and try to match the perspective as best as you can.
Now, this is a simple object, but, sometimes, with a more difficult object, you won't be
able to see the defined lines like you can with this crate.
So, what I like to do instead is find a smaller area that I can use to match the perspective,
and then I can click-and-drag on the edges to match the perspective of the rest of the object.
However, if I simply click-and-drag, you won't necessarily be able to scale in perspective.
I'm going to press Ctrl Z to undo.
What you should do instead is hold Shift,
click-and-drag, and then you can scale in perspective.
Notice here that I didn't really get that edge accurately,
Which is why it's not constraining to that line.
I did a good on the left side, but not on the right, so I can just simply move it over
and then, if I hold Shift, click-and-drag, you can see how I maintained that perspective,
and then I would match the sides of the box to match the rest of the image.
In this case, I really don't need to do that because the edges are well defined, but I
wanted to show you that trick in case you are working with an image that doesn't have
well-defined edges like this one.
But, anyway, so, now that I have the right face, the right quad created,
I can start creating the left one.
So, I can click-and -drag from the corner here, and notice that, when I get to the edge,
there's going to be a highlight.
If I release, once those edges are highlighted, they will snap together, and notice how I
have a nice line that goes right here to that corner,
and all I have to worry about is the bottom left corner.
So, I'm going to click-and -drag and place that into position.
If I need to adjust this point, I can.
I can just click-and -drag it and adjust it as best as I can.
Now, I need to work on the top, so, again, I'll click-and -drag and wait for the highlighted
area, then release, and it snaps into place.
I can drag to the left, it highlights, release, and it snaps into place as well, and all I
have to worry about now is matching that point there, and it looks like I quite didn't get this corner.
So, I can click-and -drag and adjust it, and, of course, you can fine tune your image until
you get a grid that matches the perspective of your object.
Then I can click on the Warp button, or you can press the W key.
L gets you back into the Layout Mode.
See how I pressed L and it highlighted Layout?
If I press W. It goes back to Warp.
L, layout.
W, Warp.
Also, when you're in the Layout Mode, you can just simply press Enter and it gets you
into the Warp Mode.
If you press Enter in the Warp Mode, that's Return on the Mac, by the way,
that commits the changes.
We haven't made any changes in the Perspective Warp, so nothing changes.
However, since we are working with a Smart Object, you can see that we have that effect
applied onto the smart filter.
I can double-click on the Perspective Warp label to bring us back into the Perspective
Warp tool, and I can make my adjustments.
With Warp selected, I can warp the perspective of this object by simply clicking-and-dragging
on these points, so notice now how I'm completely changing the perspective of this object.
If I press Enter, Return on the Mac, that commits the changes, and now it looks as if
we're looking at the top of this box.
If I click on this eye icon to disable the Perspective Warp, you'll see the before and the after.
Again, with a Smart Object, we're working non-destructively.
If I double-click on Perspective Warp, I can come back and continue adjusting the points
to change the perspective of the object.
If I click on this icon here, I can reset the points to their original positions.
Some of the other tools that you can use are these icons on the top.
This icon here straightens all the lines vertically.
This one here straightens all the lines horizontally, and this one here straightens all lines horizontally
and vertically, so it gives us basically the same result we have there.
I'm going to click on this icon to reset the points, and I'm going to show you a couple
of quick keyboard shortcuts.
If you have a point selected, you can use the Arrow keys on the keyboard to fine tune
the position of the points, so I'm using the Arrow keys on the keyboard to fine-tune the
position, or you can click-and-drag, of course.
You can also press the H key to hide the lines.
The points remain, but the perspective lines disappear, so press H to disable the lines,
and press H again to bring them back.
Also, when you're working with this tool and you want to straighten the lines so that they're
perfectly vertical or horizontal, you can hold Shift, click on the edge, and Photoshop
will straighten that line for you.
Also, that constrains those points, so, when you move one point, you move the other point,
and you can do the same thing for the horizontal lines as well
So, Shift and click to straighten
and once again, the yellow line means that these two points are connected.
When you move one, you move the second one,
and if you want to break that connection,
you can hold Shift again and click, and that breaks that connection,
so I can now move them independently.
And that's how the perspective tool works.
If you're enjoying this tutorial, click in the Like button now.
In the next few examples, I'm going to show you how you can use Perspective Warp to change
the perspective of objects in your photo.
So, in this photo, we have buildings, and the buildings on the left-hand side look great,
but, on the right-hand side, we have some perspective issues with these buildings so
I would like to fix the perspective.
There are several ways we can do that in Photoshop, but in this tutorial, of course, we're going
to use the Perspective Warp tool, so we're going to work non-destructively.
I'm going to click on the layer and convert it into a Smart Object.
Then I'm going to go into Edit, Perspective Warp, and what I'm going to do is create a
quad on this side here, and this quad is just going to keep everything in place.
Then I'm going to create another quad on the right-hand side and just drop it there.
Notice that they are not connected so you can have quads that are not connected
with the Perspective Warp tool.
Then I'm simply going to click on Warp, and I can click-and-drag on these points to change
that perspective, so I'm changing the perspective of the right-hand side of the image without
affecting the left-hand side of the image.
And, of course, you're going to need to do quite a bit of fine tuning on your image
to get things to look right, but notice that, just by making that simple adjustment,
the image looks much better.
I want to click on that check mark to commit the changes.
If I click on this eye icon, you can see the before and the after.
Notice how we easily changed the perspective of the right-hand side of the image without
affecting the left-hand side, and, of course, all this was non-destructive, so I can double-click
on the Perspective Warp, come back, and make any adjustments that I need to.
In this case, I think that we did a really good job, so I'm just going to hit Enter,
Return on the Mac, and that is the final result.
In this example, I'm going to show you how to change the perspective of this building,
so I'm just going to start by right-clicking on the layer and selecting Convert to Smart Object.
We always want to work non-destructively.
Then I'm going to go into Edit, Perspective Warp, and I'm just going to create a quad.
One of these grids on each side of the building.
And I'm going to go fairly quickly here.
You don't need to be very precise.
As long as you get a close-enough perspective, you should be okay.
And I'm using these lines here on the grid to try to match the perspective.
And then I'll do the other side, click-and-drag.
When I see the highlight, I'll release, and it'll snap into place, and then I can adjust
these points to match the perspective of thebuilding.
I think I may need to drag this one up just a bit higher
like so and maybe drag it a little bit to the right.
And I'm going to drag this point down, and I think this will work.
Then I'll click on Warp, and notice how I can change the perspective of this building
just by clicking-and-dragging these points.
I can hold Shift, click on the center point and then just drag it over to the right, and
that completely changes the perspective of the building.
Also, if I zoom out, so I'm holding Alt, Option on the Mac,
and scrolling down on the mouse wheel, I can zoom out.
And I can keep adjusting the perspective of this building, so we can completely change
the perspective of the photo to get a much more dramatic effect.
I'm going to double-click on the Hand tool to fit the image to screen.
That's before and after, and, obviously, in some areas, you're going to see transparency.
To fix that, just use the Crop tool and crop in the areas that I have transparency.
So you can use this tool to change the perspective of objects and building in your scene
to create more dramatic images.
Now you know how to use Perspective Warp on a single photo.
We're now going to talk about how to use Perspective Warp on your compositing.
that is when you're putting multiple images together, and you can use Perspective Warp
to change the perspective of an object and make it fit your scene so that it looks more realistic.
In this example, I'm going to show you how we can use the Perspective Warp tool in compositing.
More specifically, we're going to use it to change the perspective of this truck to make
it seem as if it's going down the street.
So, just like before, with every other example, I'm going to start by right-clicking on the
layer and selecting Convert to Smart Object.
Then I'm going to go into Edit, Perspective Warp tool, and I'm just going to follow the
perspective of the truck.
This time, I'm going to go a little bit quicker because I think you get the idea of how you
can create the grids, the quads.
And how I'm using these lines here and this one that is barely noticeable to match the
perspective of the truck.
And I'm using the Arrow keys in the keyboard to fine-tune the position of that point.
And then I'll click-and-drag on the right side, release and, again, I'll use the Arrow
keys on the keyboard to fine tune that point.
I think this one will work great there.
Now, I can simply click on Warp, and I can look at the converging lines on the street,
all these parallel converging lines, to get an idea of the perspective of the scene.
So, I can click-and-drag these points to sort of match that perspective, so I'm clicking-and-dragging
these points, and I think I want a straight edge here.
So I'll hold Shift and click and then drag these two points here, and, again, now I'm
trying to match this bottom line to the lines here on the street so that it looks a little more realistic.
And I'm also going to hold Shift and click on that back part there and then maybe click-and-drag
this point up like so.
This one might be a little too high, so I'll bring it down and maybe even back a little
bit, so I'm trying to get it to look as best as possible.
Obviously, you would need to fine-tune the image a little bit more to make it look even
more realistic, but this is a very quick example of how you can change the perspective of an
object so that it fits a composite much better.
Also, when you change the perspective of an object, you might create new problems.
For example, with this truck, if you notice, the tires on the left-hand side of the truck
now look really weird and they don't look very realistic.
So, you would need to Photoshop the tires out and move them over to the left a bit more,
but that's beyond the scope of this tutorial, so we're not going to work on that.
I just wanted to point that out to you.
In this next example, we're also going to talking about compositing, but we're going
to use advanced compositing principles.
So here we are once again with the crate, but, this time, we have a background, and
I also have some graphics that I want to show you to explain a little bit about how compositing
and perspective work, so I'll disable crate for now, and we're looking at the background.
If you look at most images, especially images with architecture, streets or any manmade
object, anything with straight edges really
You would see that the edges converge at a vanishing point.
If you follow all the converging lines, you would find that those lines end up in one,
two or three vanishing points.
In this case, we only have one vanishing point.
Let me open up this folder and show you what I'm talking about.
If I enable this layer, you will see all these parallel lines that come and meet at that one point.
So, if we created a line from that point, and I'll change the fill to green and the
stroke to green so that you can see it.
So, if we select the Line tool and draw from that point, you will see that all of the parallel
converging lines end up at that point, and if all the parallel converging lines end on
that point, then that means that this is where the vanishing point for this image is.
If that's where the vanishing point is, then that means that that's where the horizon line
is, and that is very important when it comes to compositing.
Now, if you don't really know what I just described, I have a video that talks just
about the horizon line, vanishing points, and how it relates to compositing.
I highly recommend watching that video.
It's one of my best compositing videos, so if you want a further explanation of what
this all means, watch that video.
I'll place a link right below in the description.
But, for this tutorial, the importance is the horizon line, and that is important because
if we know where the horizon line is, in this image here, it's this line here right where
the sky meets the ground plane.
And that's another way of thinking about the horizon line.
Where is it?
It's where the ground plane meets the sky, so, if we know where the horizon line is,
then we know how objects are supposed to look in that scene.
For example, if you have an object right on the horizon line, you will not be able to
see the top or the bottom of that object.
If you have an object below the horizon line,
you will always be able to see the top of it, but not the bottom.
If you have an object above the horizon line,
then you will never be able to see the top, but you will always be able to see the bottom of it.
The horizon line is the eye level,
in the case of a photograph or a composite, the eye level of the camera.
So, obviously, if you're standing right in front of something, you won't be able to see the top or bottom.
If something is above you, you'll be able to see the bottom.
If something is below you, you'll be able to see the top.
So, with that knowledge, we can come into our composite now.
So we have this crate here.
If we wanted to composite this crate into the scene, then we know that this is not the
right perspective because we can see the top.
And if this crate were really sitting here, we wouldn't be able to see the top because
it's above the horizon line, so I'm going to right-click and convert it into a Smart Object.
Then I'm going to create the perspective grids, the quads, using Perspective Warp, of course.
And I'm going to just match those edges, and I'm doing it fairly quickly here because you've
already seen this step several times in this video.
But, anyway, so now that I've matched the perspective, I'm going to go into Warp.
Once again, you can press W instead of just clicking on Warp,
and I'm just going to click-and-drag this up.
The top disappears, and I can continue adjusting all these different points to make sure that
the perspective of the scene matches.
Then I can just click on the check mark, and this already looks much more realistic than
what we had before.
Of course, I can fine tune the perspective a little bit more, add shadows and all those
sorts of things, but, in this tutorial, we're not going to spend the time to do all that
since we're mainly worried about perspective.
Also, I can come back and click on the Perspective Warp, reset the distortion, and I want to
click on the check box.
And what I'm going to do now is press Ctrl T, Command T, to transform, and I'm going
to scale that crate in and bring it here.
So, if this crate were sitting there, we can see the top of it, of course, but since we're
really, really close to the horizon line, we wouldn't be able to see that much of the top.
If I open up this graphic again, you will see that the further down you go, the more
the top you can see.
So, in this case, we're not that far away from the top, so we shouldn't be able to see
that much of the top part of the crate.
So, what I'll do is I'll select the crate, double-click on Perspective Warp, I already
have the grids there, and just adjust it accordingly.
Right about there, and I probably need to drag some of these points up, and I'm just
trying to imagine where these converging lines will meet somewhere here on the horizon line.
And, obviously, if I wanted to get an accurate result, I would have to draw those lines and
make sure that they match on the horizon line, but we don't have to worry too much about
that in this example.
I'm also going to hold Shift and click on the edge to straighten these edges there.
And just maybe adjust this a little bit more, and click on the check mark when I'm done,
or you could also press Enter, Return on the Mac.
And that's before and after.
This is more realistic because now the perspective more closely resembles the scene, and once
again, in your projects, add shadows, highlights and things like that to make the composite more realistic.
And, by the way, let me know down in the comments below if you found this tutorial useful.
Let me know if you're going to use this technique more on compositing or your photography.
I'd love to know how you plan on using these techniques.
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that Subscribe and Notification buttons.
Thank you so much for watching, and I will see you at the next tutorial.