Center Within a Selection

I picked up this little tidbit from watching Corey's tutorial on this week's Photoshop TV. He breezed past it as he updated one of his Smart Objects without describing it and it was something I had never known before, so I thought I'd figure it out and share it with you.

You may know that there are many ways to align objects within an image or with other objects. You could use Photoshop's alignment options with the Move Tool or guides with Snap or use Smart Guides. But here's one more way that I can already tell will be extremely useful.

For me, there are times when I am designing a wrap for a DVD case and I want to center something on the back. Now, I could always create a separate document of just the back, center what I need to center, and then Place that into my wrap template. Or, and here's where the tip comes in, make a selection around just the back section - or any area you would like to work in - switch to the move tool and with your desired layer active use the alignment options to center (or otherwise align) your layer within the selected area.

File that one away for a rainy day.