PHOTOSHOP FEATURES

How to rotate a layer in Adobe Photoshop.

Learn about the many ways to rotate a single layer in your Photoshop project.

An image of a boat and a whale in the ocean. The boat has been separated into its own layer, which has a bounding box around it so that it can be rotated.

What does it mean to rotate a layer?

Layers are key to almost everything you do in Photoshop. Every edit you make to an image can be overlaid on top of the image as a new layer. By adding and editing individual layers, you can edit nondestructively — preserving the original image so you can go back to square one at any time.

Rotating a layer is simply taking one of the many layers in your project and turning it clockwise or counterclockwise around a fixed point, all without rotating any other part of the image.

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Why rotate a layer?

There are several ways you can give your image just the tweak it needs by rotating a layer.

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Adjust a logo.

If you’ve added a logo as a layer to your work, you can rotate it to make sure the design looks like you want.

Fine-tune a mirrored image.

Creating a mirror effect? Rotate the layer with the duplicate image to line it up with the original.

An Adobe stock image of mountains. The mountains have been duplicated and rotated to create a mirror effect.

A before and after comparison of a photo with a rotated layer.

Alter a graphic.

Rotate a single layer of a graphic design to subtly change its appearance.

Create a composite.

While photo manipulating a composite, you can alter the angle of an element you’ve added to blend it in with the picture.

An example of a layer being rotated in a composite image.

How do I rotate a single layer in Photoshop?

There are a few different ways to rotate a layer.

Use the Move tool

The quickest and easiest method uses the Move tool to get the job done in just three steps.

Select it:
From the Layers panel, select the layer you want to rotate.
Box it:
From the toolbar on the right, choose the Move Selection tool. A bounding box will appear around the layer.
Rotate it:
Click and drag the corners to rotate the layer. Hold the Shift key to rotate in 15-degree increments.

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What are some shortcuts to rotate a layer?

Speed up your workflow and spend less time navigating menus with these tips and best practices.

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An example of the menu that shows up when you right-click on a layer. The menu shows options for Content-Aware Scale, Puppet Warp, Perspective Warp, Free Transform, and Transform.

Transform shortcuts.

Press Ctrl+T or Command+T on Mac to open the Free Transform menu or right click on the layer and select Free Transform from the drop-down menu.

Batch rotate layers.

Hold down the Ctrl key and click each layer you want to modify in the Layers panel. When you use the Move or Free Transform tool, they’ll all rotate together.

An example of the Batch Rotate Layer feature being used.

An example of the Pivot Point feature being used.

Change your pivot point.

When Show Transform Controls is enabled, you can see the pivot point your layer will rotate on. Click and drag the pivot point to set it anywhere on your canvas.