When you're satisfied with the selection you've created you can proceed...
figure 1.7
The thing is, I really want to select the portrait subject, not the background... again, no problem. All that needs to be done is for the selection to be inverted. To do so choose Select, Inverse.
Saving the Selection
Before anything else is done with the selection, it would be nice to be able to somehow save it in case it's needed again. Photoshop Elements has just the thing, a storage place that will be saved along with the file (as long as it's saved as a .psd file).
To save the selection you've created choose Select, Save Selection... In the Save Selection dialog box leave the Selection set to New, the Operation set to New Selection, give the selection a name and click OK to save the selection. That's it...
The selection can be reloaded at a later time if needed. To reload your selection simply choose Select, Load Selection... It couldn't be simpler, and it's really nice to be able to keep a copy of the selection rather than having to re-create it each time.
Combining (Compositing) the Two Images
Now it's time to copy & paste the selection containing the portrait subject from the portrait photo to the new background (in this case the sunset) photo. To do so:
- Choose Edit, Copy
- Activate the image you want to use as the new background
- Choose Edit, Paste
Voila! You should now have a new image (known as a composite image) containing the stunning background and the portrait subject. At this point you may want to move or resize the newly pasted portrait. To do so select the Move tool (it's the tool at the very top of the Toolbar) and move the subject into place. To resize the subject to help if fit better into the new background, grab one of the corners of the bounding box and click-and-drag it to resize the pasted portrait. Don't drag the sides, top or bottom, though, as doing so will resize the image in only one direction. Figure 1.8 shows the result of my efforts.
figure 1.8
The newly pasted image may still need a little work. It's quite likely that there will be some of the previous background hanging around the edges of the portrait. You'll probably find some areas of the previous background around the subject's hair, for example. To fix those problem areas you can zoom-in and (carefully) use the Eraser Tool to remove them. Work slowly and zoom-in and out as needed to make sure that you get all of the unwanted areas, without removing any part of the portrait that really needs to be there. It's not nice to remove a subject's ear, for example, even if the subject is your little brother
TIP:
Take a look at the Options for the Eraser tool to see if anything there might be helpful in removing the remnants of the portrait's background. The Size and the Opacity options would be good bets, for example. Lowering the opacity means having to make several passes over an area to remove it, but will ultimately yield better results than one swipe with a totally opaque eraser tool.
Layers Primer
The fact that you can erase the area around the portrait without affecting the sunset image is because the pasted portrait resides in what's known as a layer. That means that the image I'm currently working on (the sunset with the pasted portrait) has two layers (see figure 1.9): The bottommost layer contains the sunset and the newly pasted layer contains the portrait.
figure 1.9
In
figure 1.9, to the right, you can see the layers palette. In that palette you can see the two layers. You can also see that the portrait layer is above the sunset layer. There are a number of buttons and options worth exploring in the Layers palette and I'll explain these in more depth in an upcoming tutorial. For now consider the layers as being sheets of see-through acetate where some of the acetates have stuff painted on them. In this case the bottommost layer is completely filled with the sunset photograph and the uppermost layer has the portrait (without it's former background) photo.
A Little Color Correction
There's only one last thing to take care of in order for this composite image to be believable... Because the "studio" shot was taken with a flash and the portrait will now be displayed against a warm-red sunset background, it makes sense that the portrait should appear a little redder than it does.
The best way to adjust the color with this image is to add an adjustment layer that affects the color. The best choice for that is a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer.
The adjustment layer should only affect the portrait, though, and not the sunset layer. To make that happen, hold down the ALT-key and then click the small round icon above the portrait layer in the Layers palette. It's a circular icon that's half black and half white...
In the menu that appears choose Hue/Saturation...
In the dialog box (see figure 1.10) make sure you check the "Group with Previous Layer" option. Doing so will avoid having the sunset background affected by the color change that's about to be made. Click OK to continue.
figure 1.10
You can play around with the Hue, Saturation and Lightness sliders to get the portrait in your image to more closely match up with its new background. You can see in figure 1.11 that I've adjusted the Hue by -6 and the Lightness by +16 to help the portrait blend in to its new surroundings.
figure 1.11
If you take a look at the Layers palette when you're done, you'll see that a new layer has been added. This is the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. If you double-click the new layer's thumbnail in the Layers palette you'll bring up the Hue/Saturation dialog box complete with the settings you chose. This will still be true even if you save the file (it must be as a .psd "Photoshop" file, though) and re-open it. Very powerful stuff
That's it for now...