copy rotate & paste raster selections?

[ianyoung]

I am trying to get a circular effect of duplicating and rotating shapes around a central point eg like petals of a flower.

I make a selection from a photo. Copy it as a new layer. Change the point of rotation to the center of the image/ canvas then rotate it by dragging the handle a the new rotation point ... while dragging the "Angle" dialog box does not change until I release it. If I try to enter a precise rotation eg 30 degrees, it rotates around the center of the selection instead of the new rotation point (center of the canvas). I can't find any way of precisely rotating around any point except the center of the raster object ... it takes forever to try and guess how much to manually drag, release to see how much rotation I got, then back a bit, forward a bit, etc

When I subsequently duplicate the next layer I have to manually select a the rotation point back to the center of the canvas again ... even if I have manually moved the rotation point to the center of the canvas on the original layer, it reverts to the center of the raster object as soon as I click anywhere else ie to duplicate the layer.

I was hoping to write a script but I can't find any reference to specify offset rotation points.

Anyone got any suggestions?

[LeviFiction]

Holding SHIFT snaps the rotation to 15 degree increments while you drag the handle. If you're going for 30 degrees that would be the way to do it.

Also the status bar at the bottom shows you the current angle of your rotation if you're dragging the handle.