Step-And-Repeat Transformations In Photoshop With "Transform Again"

Photoshop Tips & Tricks: Using "Transform Again" To "Step-And-Repeat" Transformations

Photoshop offers us a couple of "step-and-repeat options for working with transformations. We can either perform the exact same transformation again using the appropriately-named Transform Again command, or we can perform the same transformation while making a copy of whatever it is we're transforming, which is very useful for creating different designs with shapes.

Here I have a triangular shape open inside my Document Window:

I'm going to rotate this shape a little to the right using the Free Transform command, so I'll press Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) to bring up the Free Transform box and handles around the shape. I want to rotate it from the bottom rather than from its center, so I'm going to drag the center point of the Free Transform box to the bottom point of the shape:

Now I'm going to hold down my Shift key and rotate the shape a little to the right. Holding down Shift rotates the shape in set increments:

I'll press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) to accept the rotation when I'm done.

Now that I've rotated the shape once, I have a couple a couple of options for using the Transform Again command. I can press Ctrl+Shift+T (Win) / Command+Shift+T (Mac) to simply rotate the image again:

I can also rotate it again while making a copy of the image each time I rotate it by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift+T (Win) / Command+Option+Shift+T (Mac), which in this case of this shape gives me an interesting effect:

And that's how you can "step-and-repeat" transformations in Photoshop.