My favorite Adobe Elements(all photoshops have this feature) feature is the transform feature. It straightens your vertical or horizontal lines so they are parallel with the frame of the photo. The wider the angle the lens the more chance you have for perspective distortion. I shoot most interior photos at 10mm to 14mm and no matter what you get those vertical lines out of wack. I run all my photos through Adobe before posting.
This photo was taken off my Multiple Listing Service. I found it to be a good example of a correction with the transform feature. I find that pictures falling over tend to be very distracting and can send a subliminal message to your veiwers. When I see this photo I just want to prevent the items frm falling off the mantle. The transform feature takes a minute to run and last time I looked adobe elements was $99.00. A must have I think for the listing agent.
I happen to use Adobe Elements 5.0 but all versions of photoshop have this useful feature. Just bring your photo into Elements. Click on the Image button, go to Transform and choose Skew.
Got to view and turn on the grid to aid you in getting vertical lines. Drag the necessary corner points until you get vertical lines that are parrellel to the frames or to what might look natural. With this photo some horizontal lines needed to be corrected also. This isnt perfect but a lot better than the original picture. Trying to get the photo right when you are taking it is a better choice. But, this is not a bad alternative especially for minor corrections.
Crop your photo and then save!!
Before
After
Another Sample
Hope this was helpful. Good Luck!!
thanks for the tips - I had never used it before - well worth the $99 - Happy New Year
I've used the feature before, but probably not as much as I need to. Good reminder. Another one of my favorite features is the ability to adjust individual light portions, get rid of the harsh light.
Toby- Not sure what feature you are talking about. I am interested in knowing any feature of Adobe I am currently not using. Can you enlighten me?
That is a great good observation. I usually just turn the picture around and do some cropping and cutting.
Hey Kevin - The skew tool is my favorite one. When using one of those wide angle point and shoot cameras it is a must. Thanks for the great tutorial - your post has been featured in the photography group.
Always glad to feature a great tutorial in the Photoshop Elements for Real Estate Group.
Thanks, Kevin
Thank for for the before and after shots. As they say, "a picture is worth a thousand words". I purchased Adobe Elements as a gift to myself and am just beginning to explore all the wonderful things it can do to improve my marketing efforts for my listings. This tip of yours is at the top of the list!
Kevin, This is an awesome tool! Thank you for posting this, I had no idea that this tool was available to me, right in my computer all of this time! Happy New Year!
It's a Good Life!
Fran
Adobe Photoshop elements is a great stripper version of the full version of photoshop. It has everything a realtor needs and in an easier version. At the price its the best program out there, for the money you can't beat it. For the more advanced computer users, the full version may be even cooler. The are several things in the full version has that elements doesn't (of course it comes with a price). I have been using photoshop for about 8 years now, so I am a little biased. I have tried elements and think its the best program for the money.
Another feature I never knew about. Thanks.
This will be very helpful, thank you
I didn't know how to use this. Thanks so much for the lesson. I can't wait to play with it.
You should also be able to double click on the layer(hit ok) to take it off layer backround lock, grap the pointer tool, hold the control key and move the corner boxex out and down until it comes back into perspective, sometimes you just want to skew the bottom 2 or top right and bottom left.
We got the Elements package about a year ago and love it. Really powerful. Premiere Elements is a pretty wild video editor as well.
I've been using Elements for about a year and really like it - didn't know about the transform/skew feature - thanks.
Great tip. I used to use it in a previous career and had forgotten how simple it really is to use. Thanks.
That is one of my favorite features too. When I use my wide angle lens everything has to be perfectly level or the shot looks really bad. I even use a tripod with a level but I still need to give it a tweak. I would say the feature in elements has saved me gallons of gasoline and hours of time.
thanks that is helpful.
I have an early version of Elements that has a skew but not as good as this one is.
Thanks for sharing. I will use this on all my photos as well. I use a 10-20 when shooting interiors.
Kevin, I have never tried the transform feature in Adobe Elements I still have version 5 as well. I had tried another program from DXO which also addresses the skew factor.
It so easy in Adobe 5.
Great tool, thanks for sharing. I felt like I was going to fall out of the left side of my chair on that first picture:)
Chris- It's amazing how the picture of the fireplace that is crooked creates anxiety. It is kind of sublinimal but does make you feel a little uncomfortable.
YES YES YES!!!! It is all about the vertical lines. I wish more people would read this blog. GREAT POSTING!
Evening Kevin, Thanks for the tutorial. I'm just upgrading my equipment and then its on to post processing.