DIGITAL DUPLICATION

The new Free Transform in Adobe® Photoshop® 5.0 can give you a whole newperspective on life! Have you ever wanted to scale and move objects in a step andrepeat pattern, as you do in Adobe® Illustrator®? Well, now you can. So let’s getrolling and discover the secrets of transformation in Photoshop 5.0.

1. Let’s say you need an imageof a typical business meeting.You have this image from theAdobe Image Library, but it justdoesn’t look like it’s going to bea very big meeting. Let’s implythat we’re anticipating a fewmore attendees by adding a fewmore note pads. How will wepull this off? We’ll duplicate thenotepads by scaling and movingthem with perfect perspective.And the one incredible featurewe’ll use to do it is the powerfulFree Transform in Photoshop.

Adobe Senior CreativeDirector Russell Brown

reveals secrets oftransfromation in

Photoshop 5.0. INTERMEDIATE

2. Before we start, it’s impor-tant to note that this techniqueworks best on images with asequence of objects in per-spective. This technique willattempt to match and copy thesequence so that it createsmore objects with the correctperspective. Now, let’s beginby placing guides around thelast object in the sequence wewant to duplicate. (You’ll beusing guides in combinationwith the Free Transform.)Choose View > Snap to Guidesbefore you start.

ShortcutsThroughout thisdocument, “Command/Ctrl” means Commandon the Macintosh andCtrl on Windows.“Option/Alt” meansOption on theMacintosh and Alton Windows.

GuidesTo create guides, clickand drag from theruler at the edge ofthe image. Show rulersby choosing View >Show Rulers.

Digital Duplication 2

3. Turn off the Guides tempo-rarily by choosing View > HideGuides. Now, select the second-to-the-last object in thesequence you want to duplicate.In this case, I selected thesecond-to-the-last note pad andits shadow using the polygontool found under the lasso tool.(Click and hold the lasso tool toreveal the polygon tool.)

4. Next, while pressing theOption/Alt key, select FreeTransform from the Edit menu.The Option/Alt key willmodify the transformation andmake a copy of the selectioninstead of cutting it out of thebackground image. Thismodification is a very impor-tant step in this process.

5. Turn the Guides back on.Choose View > Show Guides.Move the object you aretransforming over the lastimage in the sequence andsnap it to one of the cornersformed by the guides.

TransformationsYou can move objectsthat are being trans-formed in one-pixelincrements by usingthe keyboard arrows.Using the Shift key incombination with thearrow keys will movethe object 10 pixels.

ShortcutThe keyboard shortcutcombination for thisstep is: Option/Alt+Command/Ctrl+T.

Digital Duplication 3

The Magic Key Combination!7. OK, this is the final andmost important step to thisentire process. Press Option/Alt+Command/Ctrl+Shift+T.This crazy combination of keyswill transform the last trans-formed image again to make acopy. Repeat this combinationof keys until you have as manyobjects as you need to fillyour image.

6. Stretch the four corners ofthe image out to the cornerscreated by the guides. This willdistort the image to match theangle and perspective of thesequence. When finished, pressthe Enter key. The object will betransformed to match yourdistortion and positioning.

8. As you can see, I repeated thesame process down the otherside of the table and now thehigh-powered meeting is readyto start!

PathsThis same keyboardcombination willwork with paths inPhotoshop. Justtransform a path andthen use these samekeys to duplicate asequence of paths.

Adobe, the Adobe logo,Illustrator and Photoshop aretrademarks of Adobe SystemsIncorporated. Macintosh is atrademark of Apple Computer,Inc., registered in the U.S. andother countries. Windows iseither a registered trademarkor a trademark of Microsoft inthe U.S. and/or other countries.

©1998 Adobe SystemsIncorporated. All rightsreserved.

Photo Credit © Adobe ImageLibrary.

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