rhstanley3
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I'm not sure if this tip already exists on the forums, and I'm not sure what to search in order to find out, so I'm posting this anyways, just in case.
Quick show of hands, who uses the transform tool? i would expect to see everyone raise their hand for this question, even though I can't see you raise your hand. Because if I could see you raise your hand, that would be kind of creepy. Jokes aside, if you're new, and don't know what the transform tool does, then you'll want an explanation on what it is, exactly.
The transform tool allows you to freely change the size and shape of an object with the drag of a mouse. you can make objects larger, smaller, reversed, or flipped using this tool. you can even warp an object, along with many other capabilities. The transform tool can be accessed by selecting a portion of an image, and then going to Select> Transform Selection. Another way to access the transformation tool is to use the hot key CTRL+T (On a PC, the mac hot key is different) After, you can modify what it is you do to the selection by right clicking it and choosing one of the options or using the handle bars on the sides and corners of the selection box.
Now that the explanation is out of the way, another show of hands: Who uses the transform tool on the same selection multiple times in a row throughout your work process? If you raised your hand at your computer desk, or did so mentally, you may want to stop doing so, as this is a bad habit. The transformation tool is an amazing tool with many uses, but like all tools, it has it's flaws. The flaw with the transformation tool is that for every time you use it, the transformation tool destroys a ratio of the pixels that is dependent on the size of the image. What this means is that when you press CTRL+T or access it through the drop-menus, after you press the enter button to accept your changes, pixels are deleted and thrown away, never to return from the fires of mount doom (unless you undo the transformation. in that case, you're good.) If you come back to the same piece later and transform it again, the transformation tool will destroy pixels once more. this applies no matter what, if you enlarge or shrink or warp or flip an image using this tool, you will lose pixels. However, using CTRL+Z or Undo to go back will restore the lost pixels, so if you're transformation didn't work exactly the way you wanted it to, you can easily redo it without the threat of losing more pixels than necessary. Pressing escape while in the middle of transforming will also do the same thing as using CTRL+Z (aka Undo).
Now, this doesn't mean that you shouldn't use the transformation tool, as it is quite useful, but what this DOES mean is that you shouldn't use the transformation tool excessively on the same selection, as it's quite easy to OK a transformation and then come back 5 minutes later just to change it to work better with whatever it is that you are working on. Being aware of this can lead to overall better quality in your projects, although you most likely won't notice the differences between transformed and non-transformed images, and neither will your viewing audience, albeit differences appear after a number of transformations.
There are a number of ways to easily bypass this con to the tool, one being to simply have multiple layers, specifically copies of layers to work on and play with(that's what I do, however your work style can and probably will be different from mine). Simply being creative will usually get you past many problems you might face while working in Photoshop or any other program, for that matter.
Hope this quick tip on the Transformation tool was useful and that you learned something new, and hopefully this tip can help improve your work in the future! (not exactly a quick read, huh?)
Quick show of hands, who uses the transform tool? i would expect to see everyone raise their hand for this question, even though I can't see you raise your hand. Because if I could see you raise your hand, that would be kind of creepy. Jokes aside, if you're new, and don't know what the transform tool does, then you'll want an explanation on what it is, exactly.
The transform tool allows you to freely change the size and shape of an object with the drag of a mouse. you can make objects larger, smaller, reversed, or flipped using this tool. you can even warp an object, along with many other capabilities. The transform tool can be accessed by selecting a portion of an image, and then going to Select> Transform Selection. Another way to access the transformation tool is to use the hot key CTRL+T (On a PC, the mac hot key is different) After, you can modify what it is you do to the selection by right clicking it and choosing one of the options or using the handle bars on the sides and corners of the selection box.
Now that the explanation is out of the way, another show of hands: Who uses the transform tool on the same selection multiple times in a row throughout your work process? If you raised your hand at your computer desk, or did so mentally, you may want to stop doing so, as this is a bad habit. The transformation tool is an amazing tool with many uses, but like all tools, it has it's flaws. The flaw with the transformation tool is that for every time you use it, the transformation tool destroys a ratio of the pixels that is dependent on the size of the image. What this means is that when you press CTRL+T or access it through the drop-menus, after you press the enter button to accept your changes, pixels are deleted and thrown away, never to return from the fires of mount doom (unless you undo the transformation. in that case, you're good.) If you come back to the same piece later and transform it again, the transformation tool will destroy pixels once more. this applies no matter what, if you enlarge or shrink or warp or flip an image using this tool, you will lose pixels. However, using CTRL+Z or Undo to go back will restore the lost pixels, so if you're transformation didn't work exactly the way you wanted it to, you can easily redo it without the threat of losing more pixels than necessary. Pressing escape while in the middle of transforming will also do the same thing as using CTRL+Z (aka Undo).
Now, this doesn't mean that you shouldn't use the transformation tool, as it is quite useful, but what this DOES mean is that you shouldn't use the transformation tool excessively on the same selection, as it's quite easy to OK a transformation and then come back 5 minutes later just to change it to work better with whatever it is that you are working on. Being aware of this can lead to overall better quality in your projects, although you most likely won't notice the differences between transformed and non-transformed images, and neither will your viewing audience, albeit differences appear after a number of transformations.
There are a number of ways to easily bypass this con to the tool, one being to simply have multiple layers, specifically copies of layers to work on and play with(that's what I do, however your work style can and probably will be different from mine). Simply being creative will usually get you past many problems you might face while working in Photoshop or any other program, for that matter.
Hope this quick tip on the Transformation tool was useful and that you learned something new, and hopefully this tip can help improve your work in the future! (not exactly a quick read, huh?)
Smart object's would definitely be the best solution to making up for the pixel loss.
