Move tool - a Photoshop Guide

If you call up an image from file the move tool appears to have no affect on it. However, as soon as you begin to work with layers as we have shown below or you have a part of your image on a layer, the move tool will become active.

All the layers that you introduce above background can now be moved about the picture space using the move tool. We have demonstrated this below with our small reversed image. The small image can can even be moved partially outside the picture space if you wish.

The options that appear at the top of the screen in Photoshop 6 (shown above) allow you to show the bounding box around your subject. Tick the option box to bring the bounding box into play as shown below. The bounding box can then be used to size and add some distortion to the image. To remove the bounding box, remove the tick from the options.

The auto select layer option shown above will automatically select a layer from your layer stack as you touch down with your pen or click your mouse. Check out the operation of this option by creating a 2/3 layer image similar to that above. Make sure that the layers are smaller than your background so you can see them all together. Open the layers palette and drag it out into the desktop so you can observe what happens when you click in certain areas of your image.

Click around the image and watch the layers palette. As you click on a layer subject, that particular layer will be selected. We found this option a little annoying in practical use and preferred the other option of using the control key.

It works exactly the same at the Auto Select option, but only when the Ctrl key is held down.

With the move tool selected and with two images open in Photoshop you can drag one into the other to start a layered composition.