Photoshop How To

There are various methods for flipping and rotating images in Photoshop, some more effective and sophisticated than others. This quick tutorial demonstrates what one of our favorite post-processing instructors says are the best methods to use for quickly accomplishing these tasks to perfection.

Instructor Aaron Nace is an accomplished photographer whose popular PHLEARN YouTube channel is considered one of the top Lightroom and Photoshop instructional sites on the Internet. Today's episode explains all the basics and more, including how flip and rotate your entire canvas as well as individual layers

Nace describes his lesson like this: "You'll discover how to use Photoshop's Image Rotation menu for whole-canvas changes, and the Transform tool for precise adjustments to specific layers—including custom-degree rotations and scaling." And it all happens in less than for minutes.Nace begins with the simple stuff; namely, a vertical aerial shot that he thinks may be more compelling in landscape orientation. To do this he clicks on the Image tab stop the screen, selects Image Rotation from a dropdown menu that appears, and picks the 90° option in the subsequent window.

But what if you want to flip the shot vertically so that the peninsula is facing up instead of down? As you'll see, this interesting transformation is equally easy to accomplish by choosing the appropriate options. Nace notes that the aforementioned techniques affect the entire image, no matter how many layers you have.

This is where things get interesting as Nace explains layering techniques for apply these adjustments to selective areas within the frame. He reveals a keyboard shortcut for duplicating the background layer and says this: "What if we just want to flip or rotate this layer while leaving our other layers intact?" Just use anther keyboard shortcut to bring up the Transform tool and follow the simply steps that Nace provides for using Photoshop's contextual taskbar

There's much more to learn as the video proceeds, and we think you'll very surprised by how much you didn't know about cropping and rotating photos. Well, now you do! Be sure to check out the robust PHLEARN YouTube channel for post-processing photos like a pro.

We also invite you take a look at an earlier post-processing primer we featured with Nace who demonstrates how to use Photoshop's powerful Color Channel tools to create precise cutouts and add artistic effects to your photographs.