Up ..Up ...and ...Away!
The tutorials contain links that will take you to a more in depth explanation
of the tools or methods used. If you don't require them just read on.
Available on CD only.
| One of the great advantages of shooting with a digital camera is that if we see something that catches our eye we can just fire away, after all it doesn't cost us a penny! It doesn't even need to be a brilliant image because we can always improve it and even combine two images to make a totally new picture. |
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| With our two image opened in Photoshop our first task is to 'clean them up' - removing all the unwanted distractions using the clone tool. Once we have done that we can set to work combining our two images. |
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| Working on our second (balloons) image we now need to select the balloons. As our balloons are set against a clear blue sky and all the edges are clearly defined we can use the Magnetic Lasso. From the flyout menu on the tool box call up the Magnetic Lasso tool, shortcut L. If we need to make more than one selection click on the 'Add to selection' box as shown above or hold down the Shift key. |
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Now click on a starting point to set the anchor for the Magnetic Lasso Tool, then moving along the edge of our image Photoshop will snap the magnetic lasso to the edges. The magnetic lasso will lay down anchor points at significant locations, shown above. When you have finished, click on the first anchor point to close the selection. Tip......Clicking when the colour or tone changes will also lay down an anchor point. |
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| A great way of checking our selection is using the Quick Mask . Click on the Quick Mask icon in the tool box, and using the paintbrush we can tidy up our selection. Don't forget using the black will remove the area's, whilst white will restore the image. Use the zoom tool to magnify the area of the image we are working on, then use the paint brush to adjust the mask as required. |
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Once we have completed our quick mask, click the Edit in Standard mode icon in the tool box and our mask will be changed to a selection of marching ants as shown above. We need to soften the edges of our selection to avoid a 'pasted look' so from our Select menu choose Feather and enter a Radius of around 2-3. Now from the Edit menu select copy. Opening our background image choose Edit > Paste which will paste our balloons onto our background image as a new layer. |
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Once we have finished our selection, from the Select menu choose Feather and enter a Radius of between 2-3 and click ok. Feathering the selection will give a softer edge and help avoid the pasted look we can sometimes see. From the Edit menu select copy or try the shortcut Ctrl C. Now calling up our background image choose Edit>Paste shortcut Ctrl V. This will paste our balloons onto the background image as a new layer. |
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| Calling up the Move tool, shortcut V we can position our balloons on our background and to make any further adjustment to the size or scale use the Transform command Edit > Free Transform, short cut Ctrl T. This will put an eight-handled frame around the image. Holding down the Shift key whilst dragging the corner handle inwards will reduce the size and maintain the correct proportion. If we now move the cursor into the frame it changes into a black arrow that will allow us to move the balloons into position. Once we are happy, double click or press the Enter key to remove the frame. Our image is now complete and can be saved. |
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The finished image.
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