Learning Center Transforming

The following is a short lesson on using Photoshop's Transform function to make perspective control manipulations on an image. This is done in Photoshop CS although you can use an earlier version to perform the corrections.

This image was shot from my studio window with the Tamron SP AF200-500mm f5-6.3 Di lens. I was looking to change the perspective on the image so that it looked as though it were shot from the front. There was no practical way to physically get this perspective and using a view camera was not really an option. Remember that the image was shot at 500mm on a digital SLR which is the equivalent to a 750mm field of view on a 35mm film camera. This would be at least a 1700mm lens on a 4x5 camera!!! In any case here's how to transform the perspective in Photoshop.

1. Download the image below (overseasDownload.jpg) and open it in Photoshop. Right click on the image and do save picture as.

2. Open your layers window and double click the layer that says Background Layer (this is the only Layer) and then hit enter. This allows transformations to be applied to your image. [see below image (1.jpg)]

3. Grab the magnify tool and place it over your image. Hold down the alt/option key on your keyboard and click once or twice. This will provide you grey space to perform the manipulations.

4. Turn your grid on. This is found under View>Show>Grid. [see below image (2.jpg)] We'll turn the grid on to make sure our horizontal and vertical lines are straight.

5. Choose Edit>Transform>Perspective. Grab the lower right corner and swing it out slightly to make your vertical lines straight. [see below image (3.jpg)]

Grab the lower right corner and then the upper left corner to make your horizontal lines straight. Keep in mind that you also want the vertical lines to maintain their straightness. [see below image (5.jpg)]

8. Grab the crop tool and crop your image to include just the building's front facade. Now you are almost there.

9. Choose Image>Adjust>Levels [see below image (6.jpg)] There are several different ways to adjust the levels. For this example you can just choose the auto levels command and it should do the trick. You'll notice that the contrast of this image before adjusting the levels is pretty low. This is mainly a function of shooting a long lens and the haze that lies between the lens and the subject. You can experiment with adjusting the contrast to your liking. Now that you've done it with this image. Experiment using your own. Good Luck.