Congratulations Bethany Diedrich, February 2025 PFRE Photographer of the Month! The theme this month was "Living Room or Family Room".Bethany Diedrich - Entry 1022 Scott Brinkerhoff - Entry 1030 Paul-Dan Dragoman - Entry 1020Here what Bethany has to sa ...
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If you are a photographer or graphic designer, you must have run into situations where placing objects evenly on a canvas is challenging. Learn how to evenly space objects in Photoshop to achieve accurate placement of elements in your real estate photo edits.
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You can use the Smart Guides and the Move tool to space objects evenly in Photoshop. The Smart Guides act as intuitive measurements that allow you to snap elements to nearby objects accurately. Meanwhile, the Move tool lets you use Align Options, Distribute Options, and the Auto-Align Layers option to control spacing.
If elements are scattered in a messy way, it kills the appeal of the visual. I will discuss these below in detail so you can get the hang of these features and practice them to perfection.
The first thing you need to do is to create a new document with thumbnail-size images of various properties. You can use this to create a flyer, adding text and other elements later. For example, this is a color-filled background with three images on separate layers.
Alternatively, you can create a document using vector shapes to practice their placement using the options described below. Make sure that you deselect a shape by pressing CTRL/CMD + D before creating new duplicate layers.
The first feature I will consider is the intuitive Smart Guides in Photoshop. The feature answers the spacing and aligning issues you may encounter while designing.
Although very useful, the Smart Guide method to space objects requires manual alignment and distribution. However, there are times when many elements need an arrangement and precise spacing. In this case, you may use the Move tool options to do the job automatically for you.
If on a separate layer, each object can be aligned and distributed accurately along with the other elements on your document. The 12 Alignment and Distribution options are accessible via the Layer menu and the options bar of the Move Tool.
Remember that to use the Align/Distribute options, you must select at least three layers in your layer panel. Unless you do that, the options won’t be available to you.
The adjustment layers, vector layers, or any Smart Objects that do not have the needed information about alignment or distribution cannot be selected.
With the layers selected, go up to the Layer menu. Choose any of the six options from the Align option to ensure even spacing from a specific perspective.
Alternatively, go to the Layer menu, and hover over the Distribute option. Here you can choose any of the six options from the submenu to distribute the layers in the right proportion.
The six Align options and the six Distribute options are also accessible as icons on the top options bar when you select the Move tool. Select the desired object layers and click on any icons that will fulfill your placement command.
The six align options in Photoshop are:
The six Distribute options are:
The Auto-Align is another feature that is very handy while using the Move tool. It can align layers with some similarity in content around the borders.
To overlay the matching content, choose a reference layer in the Layer panel and click on the Auto-Align icon. The feature will place the images so that the matching content will be overlapped.
Here is a tip to avoid moving a layer accidentally after you have perfectly aligned and distributed them. Make a group consisting of every object spaced in the correct position.
This will help you move the whole group together if needed. Likewise, this will help void changing the placement of a layer.
The Alignment and Distribute options are only available for use if you have three or more layers selected in the Layer panel. You need to specify to Photoshop the elements that need to be spaced evenly.
You need to Align and Distribute objects evenly to achieve perfect visual coherency in marketing materials like flyer designs and ads. This is also necessary when combining several pictures in the form of a collage. Likewise, this is essential when aligning images with relevant text in a graphic.
Using Smart Guides and the Move tool, you can quickly space elements at equal spaces in a multilayer document and create visual coherency without figuring out measurements. The efficient tools in Photoshop can help you achieve proportional spacing between objects when editing real estate images.
