Photoshop has a lot of elements going on for it. You can do a lot using photoshop in terms of creativity and imagination. To widen the possibilities there is a thing called perspective grid in photoshop.
A perspective grid in photoshop is basically used for changing the viewing perspective of your photograph. You can use this to create a different perspective in the photo. It’s a really helpful tool if you need to have precision in perspectives of the photographs you click. Also, sometimes you can get better results with different angels of the photograph.
For that purpose, you can use this perspective grid in photoshop.
Using the perspective grid
This is not something you must know but can affect your work a lot. You can even create different dimensions if you learn the perspective grid. So you can use the perspective grid to rotate or change the perspective of certain elements in the photograph.
Besides the creativity aspect there are some necessary adjustments that require using perspective grid. For example, you might take a picture that doesn’t portray the actual essence of your subject. In that case you can change the perspective of the image to make it look far better. This mostly happens when you are working with images that have buildings and architecture on them.
You can use the perspective grid in the following ways.
First of all, you will need to open up the photo in photoshop. Then convert the photo into a smart object. Then go to edit and click perspective warp option. According to your image and subject draw out the grids and lines. After you are done drawing the grids you can use the warp option to change the perspective of that significant element you have selected.
This is the basic use of the perspective grid. But this isn’t usually used much. The more important usage of the perspective grid is in making a perspective grid for drawing and much more creative purposes. Now let’s checkout some things you will need to know about making a perspective grid.
Elements of perspective grids and their use
There are a lot of elements involved with perspective grids. Here, we will be telling you what they are. But you can figure out their practical usage with practice. Let’s get in.
- Vanishing point: When you start creating a perspective grid you will see a point where the gridline vanishes. It also works as an anchor point for your perspective grid. In the vanishing point option, you will see different settings. You can tweak them and learn their usage properly. The vanishing point just creates all the paths for your perspective grid.
- Parallel lines: This one is mostly used for a one-point perspective. It has some lines that are parallel to each other and gives you a viewpoint of them. These lines help you keep your elements aligned accurately in a perfect line.
- Persp Parallel Lines: Whenever you need a perspective where it vanishes in a distance you will need to tweak the settings of a persp parallel lines. This is used in a one-point perspective. Especially in the cases where objects tend to shrink as they go far from the viewpoint. If you are working with a one dimension such as roads, railways, and leading lines this is something used for creating perspectives.
- Ellipses: Well, ellipses are basically used for creating curved perspectives. They can be a four-point perspective or even any multi-point perspectives. With this one, you can make sure the curved perspective stays in the ellipse to make more accurate pictures and drawings.
- Parabolas: This is a very useful and interesting element of a perspective grid. If you are working with buildings and interior designs you will need to create depth in the photograph. For that purpose, you will need to use parabolas. This helps you create depths in the four-point perspectives. This is very crucial for interior designers and architects in their line of work.
So, using these elements you can create different kinds of perspective grids. Now, you might have questions regarding perspectives. Well, that’s a different topic overall but we will discuss a little bit about the three major perspectives you might face in photoshop. Here you will come across a one-point perspective, two-point perspective, three-point perspective, and four-point perspective.
Usually, a one-point perspective is just like a picture or a drawing from one dimension with one vanishing point. The same way a two-point perspective has two vanishing points such as two sides of a building. A three-point perspective will have a vertical axis along with two horizontal lines. Finally, the four-point perspective mostly works with interiors and dimensions with depths. Such as a fish-eye view.
To get a better understanding of this you can check out the following examples.
- One-point perspective: You might have seen a lot of images that have one-point perspective. A very common image to use one-point perspective is the image of a rail line taken from the point of view of a train. Images like this mostly work with the idea of leading lines connecting to a single point. The idea here is that you can only see the image from a single perspective there are no other views.
- Two-point perspective: In a two-point perspective you get to see the image from two different viewpoints. You get to see two parallel lines leading up to their own vanishing points. A popular use of this is images of buildings where you can see two connecting sides of a building.
- Three-point perspective:A three-point perspective is basically a 3D image or drawing. You can look at the image from three different angles and perspective. It works with length, width and height. Imagine taking a picture from a low angle a bit diagonally to your subject. That’s what you will get.
- Four-point perspective: You can very easily understand and recognize a four-point perspective. It’s the images that let’s you see all four dimensions of an image. Practically it’s not possible because we work on 2-dimensional space in terms of images. But it’s the idea of giving you four different perspectives. A fish eye lens follows the principles of four-point perspective.
Now let’s go through the creating process of a perspective grid.
Making a perspective grid
First of all, open up the program and create a document according to your need. Then start with the following steps.
- Draw a horizontal line preferably in the middle of the canvas. This will give you equal spacing on the top and the bottom of the picture. This line defines the starting point of looking at this picture. And the vanishing point is the beginning.
- Then go to the rectangle tool and select the polygon tool. This is a very important part of making a perspective grid.
- Before you begin using the polygon tool make sure all the settings are according to your preference. You can basically use the trial and error method for perfection.
- When you use the polygon tool you will need to work with the star shape. To select that there will be a gear icon and a tiny triangle. There you will see a checkbox with the star option. Select it.
- Now select a vanishing point in the horizontal line. From there drag on the mouse and fill out the canvas. This will easily create a one-point perspective.
- From this point making a two, three or four-point perspective is really easy. You just have to zoom out the workspace and duplicate the one-point perspective. For a two-point perspective place two of those one-point perspectives on the different sides at the same height. Similarly, for three points you will need another one and for four points you will need to more on the top or bottom.
Conclusion
There you have it some basic guidelines to start off with making perspective grids. Now getting perfection in your drawings won’t involve a lot of hassle in it. Hopefully, the whole article helps you have a better understanding of the perspective grid in Photoshop.