Photo Distortion Tutorial

Hi Liz fans!!! Helen here to bring you a tutorial on how to distort your photos! This tut was inspired by one of the new releases Liz has coming out this week. You read correctly! I said ONE of the new releases (plural). Just wait until you see all the great things she has for you. Okay, enough teasing!

One of the items she will be debuting is: 3D Templates. Intrigued? Hope so. I am going to show you how to distort your photos to give them a little more 3D effect before clipping them to the shapes in these templates. It is a subtle effect that will add just a little extra "umpff" to your layout! Here goes...

I began by opening the 3D Template of my choice. I chose #2 from Liz’s set.

Next, you want to prepare to add your first photo to your template. Click on the circle mat you want your photo to be clipped to. Doing this BEFORE dragging your photo on to the workspace will place the photo directly above the layer you want it clipped to.

Next, drag your photograph on to your workspace. You will see it was placed just above the layer I want it clipped to.


Now you want to CLIP the photo to the layer underneath. I use PSE 6.0 so other programs or versions my vary slightly. Hold down your ALT key and hover your mouse over the line that separates the Photo Layer & the Large Circle Photo Layer until the little hand changes to what looks like two circles overlapping each other. Once the hand changes, left click. Your photo thumbnail layer should now be right indented and you should see a little black arrow pointing downward as in the photo below.

I chose to clip the photo first so when I begin playing with the distortion levels I can actually “see” how it will look. Just remember….the UNDO key is your friend!

Let’s do some distorting. Choose Filter from your main menu at the top of your screen.

Choose Correct Camera Distortion from the drop down box.

A new window will appear. For this tutorial we are just going to be working in the Perspective Control area and only distorting the horizontal view since Liz’s template shapes are standing fully upright but slanted to the side.

Under the Horizontal Perspective you need to slide the slider to the left until you reach -50. Then click OK. You will be taken back to your workspace and you will see your clipped photo change perspective. Let’s UNDO this step and begin again….choosing Filter>>>Correct Camera Distortion only this time move the slider all the way to the left under Horizontal Perspective (-100) and click OK. Here is a screenshot showing No Distortion…..-50 Distortion……-100 Distortion. I prefer the -50 but I wanted you to see for yourself. If you prefer the -100, by all means use it.

Negative 50 Horizontal Photo Distortion

Negative 100 Horizontal Photo Distortion

Some side-by-sides to show the subtle differences




Once you have your photo distorted the way you like it you are ready to Merge the end result to your circle mat. Make sure your indented photo layer is highlighted and click on the two little arrows pointing to the right (across from the word Layers)….kind of hard to see in my screenshot.

From the drop down box, choose Merge Down (you can also press CTRL E as a short cut). Now you have a merged/distorted photo.

Here is the completed layout I did using Liz's 3D template (and the kit, Little Charmer by Amy Stoffel). Fun stuff for sure!!!

I hope you found this tutorial helpful. I realize it may have been too detailed but I wrote for the digi-scrapper still learning the ropes of the program.

Don't forget, this awesome template set will be 20% off through July 14th at Scrap Orchard. Be patient though.....won't be released until tomorrow sometime :)

Happy Scrapping!

~Helen~