Transform (skew, distort, perspective)

In the below example the original picture is on the left. The entire picture was then selected and under the Edit menu -Transform menu - Distort was selected. This put the handles around the frame of the picture. In the middle picture I colored the frame and handles (little boxes) red so they would be more noticeable. Once the picture (or area) was selected the top-right corner was dragged up and slightly to the right and the top-left handle was dragged up and slightly to the left. Once you have the picture looking the way you want, you have to double-click on on the image (or click outside of the canvas) to apply the distortion. In this example the distortion (from the camera lens) is removed from the picture and restored the building and tree back to their vertical position as seen on the far right image.

original

image with handles

altered image

In the above example the Distort feature was actually used to restore distortion that was introduced by the camera lens. The building was approximately 1.48 inches wide on the bottom and 1.22 inches on the top. After distorting - the building is put back into proper portion. Sometimes you may want to take an image that is in proper perspective and distort it.

You can also distort by dragging the handles in the middle of the sides for horizontal distortion or dragging the handles in the middle of the top or bottom to distort in the vertical direction. Of course any combination of dragging any of these handles will change the picture accordingly.

What's the difference between Skew, Distort, and Perspective? Well, at first not much, but upon closer observation:

Skew only stretches in either horizontal or vertical per drag and you can not drag from the middle handles away from the center of the canvas. The picture on the left is the original picture. Since the picture just needed one corner expanded, the skew option was used to drag the lower right corner to the right of the canvas.

Distort allows you to stretch in the horizontal and vertical position at the same time and go beyond the boundary of the picture. The picture on the left is the original picture. The picture needed to be stretched down AND to the left in order to restore the square look to the room. Since two dimensions needed to be altered, the distort option was used to stretch the canvas. The lower right corner was drug down and to the right.

Perspective changes opposite sides of the image equally. This picture on the left is the original picture. The picture was taken from below the seal, so the image taken on the camera appears oval instead of circular. The perspective option was used to compress the lower corners together in the same proportions.