Transforming Selection Marquees in Photoshop

To transform just the selection marquee without affecting the underlying pixels, make your desired selection and then choose Select➪Transform Selection. Photoshop doesn’t have a submenu with individual transformations to choose from. Instead, you must apply the transformations like you do with the Free Transform command: by using the keyboard shortcuts. You can also enter values in the Options bar to transform numerically, or you can access the context menu. To move the selection marquee and the bounding box, simply drag inside the marquee or nudge it by using the keyboard arrow keys. Transforming selections is particularly handy when you’re trying to select elliptical objects. It is often hard to get the selection precise the first time around, so applying a transformation is often necessary.

Distorting selected pixels with Free Transform
The Transform menu isn’t the only way to distort selected pixels. A much more efficient way is to use the Free Transform command, also found on the Edit menu. Like the Transform command, the Free Transform command surrounds your selection with a bounding box. Within the bounding box, you can scale, rotate, skew, distort, or apply perspective without having to choose the individual distortions. You just have to use the right keyboard shortcuts. To scale and rotate, use the same method as the Transform commands. Here’s the scoop on the rest:
- Skew: Ctrl+Shift+drag (Ô+Shift+drag on the Mac) on a side handle
- Distort: Ctrl+drag (Ô+drag on the Mac) on any handle.
- Perspective: Ctrl+Shift+Alt+drag (Ô+Shift+Option+drag on the Mac) on a corner handle.

Unfortunately, if you want to apply a flip or rotate by degree while free transforming, you need to use the Transform submenu. While the bounding box is surrounding your selection, you can also access a context menu that offers all the transform options. Right-click (Control+click on the Mac) on your canvas to access this handy shortcut.

Transforming Pixels in Photoshop

Although you may consider the distortions on the Transform menu somewhat mundane when compared to the fun and flashy Liquify command, I’m sure you’ll find them a lot more practical and useful in your daily digital-imaging chores.

Here’s how to transform a selection:
1. Create your selection.
I’ll leave this task up to you; just use your now well-honed selection expertise. You can also apply transformations to a layer or to multiple layers.
2. Choose Edit➪Transform.
If all you want is a single transformation, this command is adequate. However, if you want multiple transformations, you’re wise to stick with the Free Transform command, which I cover later in this section.
3. Choose a transformation type from the submenu:
- Scale: Increases or decreases the size of your selection
- Rotate: Freely rotates your selection in either direction
- Skew: Distorts your selection on a given axis
- Distort: Distorts your selection with no restrictions on an axis
- Perspective: Applies a one-point perspective to your selection
- Rotate 180°, 90° CW (Clockwise), or 90° CCW (Counterclockwise):
Rotates the selection by specified amounts
- Flip Horizontal or Vertical: Flips your selection along the vertical and horizontal axes, respectively As soon as you select your desired distortion and release the mouse button, a box called the bounding box, or transform box, surrounds your selection, complete with handles on the sides and corners. Note that you don’t get a bounding box with the Flip transformation (which just gets applied to your image).
4. Depending on which transformation type you chose in Step 3, drag a handle.
- Scale: Corner handles work best for this transformation. Press Shift to scale proportionately. Press Alt (Option on the Mac) to scale from the center.
- Rotate: Move your cursor outside the bounding box. When the cursor becomes a curved arrow, drag CW or CCW. Press Shift to rotate in 15-degree increments.
- Skew: Drag a side handle.
- Distort: Drag a corner handle.
- Perspective: Drag a corner handle.

Choosing Rotate 180°, 90° CW, or 90° CCW or Flip Horizontal or Vertical will just execute the command. Handledragging isn’t necessary. Photoshop executes all the transformations around a point called the reference point. The reference point appears in the center of the transform box by default.

You can move the center point anywhere you want, even outside the bounding box. In addition, you can set your own reference point for the transformation by clicking a square on the reference point locator in the Options bar. Each square corresponds with a point on the bounding box.
5. You can choose a second transformation type from the Edit➪Transform submenu, if desired.
If you’re an ultraprecise type of person, you can also numerically transform the selection by entering values in the Options bar.

Be sure to execute all your transformations in one fell swoop if possible. In other words, don’t scale a selection now and then five minutes later rotate it and then five minutes later distort it, because every time you apply a transformation to an image, you are putting it through an interpolation process. Interpolation recalculates the pixels. When you transform a selection, Photoshop either adds or deletes pixels. You want to try to limit how many
times you interpolate an image because it has a degrading effect — your image will start to appear soft and mushy. The only exception is flipping or rotating in 90-degree increments. These commands are interpolation free.

6. After you have transformed your selection to your liking, do one of the following: Double-click inside the bounding box; click the Commit button in the Options bar; or press Enter (Return on the Mac).
To cancel the transformation, press Esc or click the Cancel button in the Options bar. Your image is now magically transformed. Note that if your image isn’t on a layer, you can leave a hole filled with the background color after your image is transformed.

To repeat a transformation, choose Edit➪Transform➪Again.

Moving and Cloning Selections

When you have your selection refined to the ultimate in perfection, you may then want to move it or clone it. To move a selection, simply grab the Move tool (the four-headed arrow) at the top right of the Tool palette, and then drag the selection. Sounds easy enough, right? When you move the selection, however, be warned that the area where the selection used to reside is now filled with the background color. This is provided, of course, that you are moving both the selection outline and the image pixels. You can move just the selection outline (without the pixels), as I explain in an upcoming section. Also note that if you are moving a selection on a layer, you are left with transparent
pixels. When you use the Move tool, your cursor icon changes to a pair of scissors, letting you know that you are cutting out the selection.

Drag ‘n’ drop ‘til you can’t stop
You can move and clone selections within a single image or among multiple images. To move a selection from one image to another, choose Edit➪Cut, activate the second image, and choose Edit➪Paste. To clone a selection, simply drag the selection with the Move tool from one image window and drop it onto another image window. The original image stays intact. To clone a selection marquee, drag the marquee with any selection tool from one image window to another.

Cloning
If the idea of leaving a big hole in your image doesn’t appeal to you, you can copy and move the selection, leaving the original image intact. Just press Alt (Option on the Mac) and drag with the Move tool. This action is often referred to as cloning because you’re essentially making a duplicate of a selected area and then moving that duplicate elsewhere. When cloning, your cursor icon changes to a double-headed arrow, notifying you that you are duplicating the selection. If you want to move your selection in small increments (1 pixel), press your arrow keys while you have the Move tool selected. Press Shift along with an arrow key to move 10 pixels. And of course, adding the Alt (Option on the Mac) key to the key commands allows you to clone a selection while you move it.

You can temporarily access the Move tool by pressing the Ctrl (Ô on the Mac) key when you have any tool selected, except for the Hand tool, Pen tools, Slice tools, Path Selection tool, Direct Selection tool, and Shape tools. Likewise, press Alt along with Ctrl with any of these tools to clone and move a selection.

Moving the selection outline, but not the pixels
If all you want to do is move the selection marquee without moving the pixels underneath, you want to avoid using the Move tool. Instead, grab any selection tool — the marquee tools, the lasso tools, or the Magic Wand tool — and then click inside the marquee and just drag. That way you move only the outline of the element, not the element itself. You can also use the arrow keys to nudge a selection marquee.