Perspective warp

Photoshop lets you easily adjust perspective in images. This feature is particularly useful for images having straight lines and flat surfaces—for example, architectural images and images of buildings. You can also use this feature to composite objects having different perspectives in a single image.

Sometimes, an object may look different in an image from how it appears in real life. This mismatch is due to perspective distortion. Images of the same object captured from different camera distances and angles of view exhibit different perspective distortion.

Perspective distortion in images of the same object captured from different distances and angles

(Creative Commons image courtesy: SharkD)

Prerequisite: Enable the graphics processor

Photoshop requires at least 512 MB of video RAM (VRAM) to run the perspective warp feature on 16-bit and 32-bit documents. For details, see Photoshop graphics processor (GPU) card FAQ.

As a prerequisite to adjusting perspective, ensure that the graphics processor is enabled in your Photoshop preferences.

1. Choose Edit > Preferences > Performance.
2. In the Graphics Processor Settings area, select Use Graphics Processor.
3. Click Advanced Settings. Ensure that Use Graphics Processor To Accelerate Computation is selected.
   
4. Click OK.

Adjust perspective

Define planes

Before you adjust perspective, you must define the planes of the architecture in the image:

1. Open the image in Photoshop.
2. Choose Edit > Perspective Warp. Review the onscreen tip and close it.
3. Draw quads along the planes of the architecture in the image. While drawing the quads, try to keep their edges parallel to the straight lines in the architecture.

Manipulate the planes

1. Switch to the Warp mode from the Layout mode.

2. Manipulate perspective in one of the available ways:

• Move around the corners of the quads (pins) as appropriate. For example, you can adjust the perspective of this image, such that the two sides of the building exhibit foreshortening in equal measures. The resulting perspective would approximate a direct view of the building from a corner.

• Shift-click an individual edge of a quad to straighten it and keep it straight during further perspective manipulation. Such a straightened edge is highlighted in yellow in the Warp mode. You can manipulate the corners of the quads (pins) for finer control while adjusting perspective.

• In the Warp mode, you can click the following icons for automatic perspective adjustment:
  

          Automatically level near horizontal lines

          Automatically straighten near vertical lines

          Automatically straighten both vertically and horizontally

3. Once you're done adjusting the perspective, click the Commit Perspective Warp icon ().  

Keyboard shortcuts

The following keyboard shortcuts make it easier to adjust perspective:

Slightly move a corner of a quad (pin)

Hides the grid when you're working in the Warp mode

Switches to the Layout mode

Switches to the Warp mode

In the Layout mode, you can press the Enter key to quickly switch to the Warp mode. In the Warp mode, the Enter key commits the current changes to the perspective.

(Warp mode) Straightens an individual edge of a quad and keeps it straight during further perspective manipulation. If you don't want to preserve the straightening of the edge, Shift-click it again.

(Layout mode) Constrains the shape of a plane while lengthening it

FAQ