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Determined Newbie
Participant
April 17, 2021
Question

In Elements 2021, how do I rotate a layer within a background?I am a new real estate leasing agent I

  • April 17, 2021
  • 3 replies
  • 699 views

I am a new commercial leasing agent. I have a picture of a retail space with the

old sign (i.e. previous tenant's signage). I would like to put the sign of the new business into the framework of the old sign. Also, the picture of the building was taken at a slight angle, so the framework of the old sign appears as a slightly skewed rectangle. I have the image of the new graphic as a pdf. I have tried using Photomerge, however, although it will move & resize the extracted image....there is no provision for me to rotate it within the skewed rectangle shape outline to compensate for the fact that the picture was taken on an angle.  Subsequently, I have attempted to select the new sign section  from the Photomerge result, hoping I could continue seek a method to align the inner version with the outer outline through cutting and pasting (using layers?). PLEASE HELP. Thank you in advance for any & all assistance. My boss knows that I have never done ANY photo editing.... however, I promptly bought Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021 (Windows 10 version) 3 days ago and have not slept much! After many, many hours of tutorials, I humbly request  help.

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3 replies

Greg_S.
Community Expert
Greg_S.Community Expert
Community Expert
April 19, 2021

@Determined Newbie said:

I decided to learn how to change the JPEG to a PDF format. Now, when I open it, it's coming up as a thumbnail! It's impossible to work with....too small to even manipulate properly. I had noticed that the graphic was not sharp. I thought that I could perhaps "refine" it before placing it.

I'm afraid this was a big mistake.  In the first place, Elements no longer supports all forms of PDF.  Second, if you saw that the graphic was not sharp, this was probably because the resolution of the image was not good to begin with.  Changing the format of the file from jpeg to pdf probably compressed the resolution even more and you would have ended up with an even fuzzier photo to work with.

So, as Peru Bob says, you can skew a jpeg photo that has been added as a layer in the editor.  And, if you use the File>Place method or the one I suggested which is to drag the new sign photo up from the Editor's Photo Bin to the original photo, it will become a smart object.  What this means is that you can make several changes to the layer, e.g. resizing, moving and skewing it several times, and you will not lose any sharpness or resolution in the final result. 

 

And I now realize that I gave you the wrong command to add perspective to the new sign (rather than skewing it to fit).  🥴 You actually need to select the new sign layer and use the Image>Transform>Perspective menu command.

    MichelBParis
    MichelBParis
    Legend
    April 19, 2021

    Good explanation, Greg.

     

    The important fact is that the pdf format is inadequate for the purpose. It's a printing/displaying format for photos, drawings, but also text and vector files.

    "I'm afraid this was a big mistake. In the first place, Elements no longer supports all forms of PDF."

    To be clear the editor has always had to convert the pdf printing format into an image format before opening and editing.

    The big issue in recent versions is linked to the fact that there are different versions of pdf formats. The normal one used in Acrobat, Illustrator, InDesign etc and variants including Photoshop pdf. That's an hybrid format combining the normal one plus a full psd version of your layered files. Many advantages, those photoshop pdfs don't need to be converted and are opened directly in your PSE as well as in Acrobat Reader. The size becomes huge...

    When you save as from PSE, you save a Photosop PDF version.

    The big issue is that now the organizer no longer support cataloguing pure pdf format, only Photoshop formats.

     

    If you want to save your files from PSE in a standard pdf format, that only works with the share option in a limited way. The necessary workaround is to use a 'virtual pdf printer driver' like the 'Print to pdf' printer driver present with Windows 10 and in many free apps. You 'print' to files, which means you 'save' in the true pdf format. Very useful to get reasonable sized pdfs and to save multipages pdfs.

      Greg_S.
      Community Expert
      Greg_S.Community Expert
      Community Expert
      April 18, 2021

      Just to give you a clearer picture of Step 7 referenced by Phil's instructions, once you have the new sign PDF inserted as a new layer into the original sign photo, you can select that layer and use the Transform tool (Ctrl+T).  In the tool options bar, select the skew option.  You can then drag the handles to create a perspective for the new sign and change the angle if necessary. 

      Here I created a new file with a simple text layer. You can do the same by simply opening the PDF file in the Editor. I dragged the new sign file up from the photo bin into the original document, hit Ctrl+T, then dragged the handles around. (In this image the complete sign was out of the frame but it should give you the idea.)

       

       

       

        D
        Determined Newbie 2
        Participant
        April 18, 2021

        Really wanted show my appreciation by following both of your suggestions as quickly as possible....however, I am going to have to follow through after some sleep. At least I will be able to sleep now knowing I can finish this and get it out to meet my boss' deadline. Thank you again. The next post of completion coming in a few hours!

          Phil Pickering
          Phil Pickering
          Legend
          April 18, 2021

          Hi,

           

          Try using these instructions from the Photoshop Elements User Guide:

           

          Place a PDF file in a new layer

           

          Pay particular attention to Step 7 which deals with skewing the artwork to match the image.

           

          Hope that helps!

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