How to distort one corner of an image without moving two sides (read, hard to explain in Subject!)

[Camagna]

This is the problem:

When I want to Transfrom/Distort a corner of a rectangle, the content of the rectangle doensn't stay in the same place. I mean, let's say as an example that I've a point right in the center, when I squeeze the lower right corner towards the upper right, the point MOVES towards the right side of the rectangle!! This makes some adjustments I need to do impossible to achieve. If I use Warp, I can't really mantain straight lines in the image because everything, well, warps… Carefully moving handles I could theoretically achieve the transformation I need but it's very hard and very prone to approximations that I can't tolerate and very slow to achieve and repeat. What I need is a way to compress a corner towards another corner without shifting the content of the rectangle towards the side of the corner I'm moving. All mantaining straight lines in the perpendicular sides and progressively compress them towards the corner where I'm moving the other one. It's hard, please follow the description and you'll understand.

Need help, I'm quite stuck!!

I've attached a very short little movie that shows exactly the unwanted behaviour. Look at the heads, they MOVE towards the right, this is what I don't want. I need to compress the right side without shifiting the content inside the rectangle towards the right side.

[matt@signcraftsolutions.c]

If you're still in need of the solution for this - you must turn the layer you're distorting into a "Smart Object" first. This will allow you to move individual corners while holding Cmd/ Ctrl while using the "Free Transform" tool. 

It's kind of puzzling to me, because I placed a linked image into my master image, PS calls this a Smart Object, but will not allow the full Free Transform until you actually apply the "Convert to Smart Object" command.

[davescm]

matt@signcraftsolutions.c Unfortunately that does not resolve the issue posted at the start of this thread in 2019. The problem is not moving the corners, but the way in which that impacts the image. The transform tools built into Photoshop do not have the ability to freeze one plane, so that the distortion is only carried out in the Y direction and not in the X, unlike the tools in After Effects which can do that as shown earlier in the thread.

Dave

[Camagna]

Yes you're right. At the moment there's no solution to this simple transformation. Unbelievable, honestly.

[Trevor.Dennis]

I Mhave not read the whole thread, but you can select any part of a layer, and transform it without affecting the unselected area.  You could add some shading to this to create a convincing page curl for instance.

[Camagna]

yes but this is not what we want to do. Transforming this way creates curves, I need a straight transformation that doesn't move selection borders that are not moved. Please check the first post, there's a short video that shows exactly what's wrong with the distort tool. BTW, distort as it is now it's ok, we need just a DIFFERENT distort that doesn't move the unaffected borders of the selection. Seems that in After Effects it's possible, but that's not a solution in PS.

[Trevor.Dennis]

OK, I'm with you now.  It's not especially easy to find suitable search phrase, but I think it comes down to that aweful Transform Perspective stretch.  I would dearly like to know how to avoid that stretch, or at least control how much it distorts.  I've spent some time searching Google with 'Photoshop Transform Perspective without stretching the image'.   I found several people asking the same question like this Reddit thread, but no answers.

I wondered if Perspective Warp might work, but it seems that perspective stretch insists on messing things up.

I'll check out the After Effects method back up the thread.

[Trevor.Dennis]

I thought this was working for a moment, but it is not compressing the right edge, just shifting it up.

Its the same result as Free Transform, but the out of bounds pixels wrap around from the bottom.

[Trevor.Dennis]

BTW I continued the OP's use of old B&W movie images, and chose Casablanca as I was there a few weeks ago.  The movie was actually filmed in California, but an enterprising Moroccan man saw an opportunity and opened this cafe.