MacGyver would love Photoshop

This is for all you who have Photoshop CS3 or CS4 Extended. Among its many fun 3D tools and video tools, there is also a new menu called "Analysis". By using Analysis and measurement tools like the ruler, Photoshop can figure out the size of objects in an image. I've seen a demo of this with medical x-rays --"just how long is that nail that's stuck in your foot?" type of stuff. But u designers and photographers can use Analysis for other purposes.

Recently W+W was asked to help with environmental graphics at Adobe's headquarters. They were to be large posters that might take up entire walls. We could have brought a tape measure, but my dSLR worked just fine.

I lined up Monika firing squad-style against the wall and popped off this image.


Back at our office, I opened the image in Photoshop and went to Analysis > Set Measurement Scale > Custom and drew the ruler from her head to her heels. Since we know that Monika is 5'6", plus an extra inch for her shoes, I was able to add a logical height of 67 inches.


Now that I had set the scale for the image, all I had to do was use Photoshop's ruler to measure the height of the room (9ft), the width of the wall (19ft), and even the size of the picture frames behind her (34"x42").


You can even measure in perspective using Vanishing Point.