New Photoshop Elements Challenge

[Joy Williams]

Anyone up for trying to move a subject from one photo to another? Give this a shot and post your original photo as well as your end result!

Here's some quick "how to" directions  ...

Open your photo in Photoshop Elements.

Grab the Quick Selection Tool (Keyboard Short Cut is A)

Select the area of the photo that you want to move to another background. (If you accidently select something that you do not want in your selection, Hold the Alt Key down (on a Mac it is the Option key) as you go over the unwanted section. (To continue to add to your selection, just remove your finger from the Alt key and continue on.)

 

Once you are happy with the selection, go to the Tool Options Bar at the top and click on the Refine Edge button. In the dialog box that opens, set the Smooth slider to about 10. This will smooth out the edges of your selection.  Then set the Feather slider to around 1 pixel, and move the Contract/Expand Slider to about -5.  Press OK.

 

Now, double click the background layer in the Layers Palette. This will open the New Layer dialog box. Just press OK. It will rename this layer to “Layer 0” or you can rename it whatever you want.

 

Now, open up the New Background Photo that you want to move your selection to.

Select the Move Tool (Keyboard Short Cut is V)

Click and drag the selection from your first image onto your new background image. If you need to resize it so that it fits correctly into the new photo, Press Control + T on your keyboard. This will put you into Free Transform and you can use the Bounding box to resize it. You can also move it around in the new background as well. Once you are satisfied with the size and location in your new background, click on the green check mark, or hit enter.

 

 I used the football field that is in Elements Backgrounds found in the Content Dropdown. (Above the Layers Palette)  First, I opened a new blank file  (File -New- Blank File). Then Double click on the Football field in the dropdown and it puts it onto this new file. Then, just move your selection onto the new background.

This was my original photo and the end result:

[Dori & Rua]

That is so incredible Joy.  I have a book "How to Cheat in Photoshop Elements 9" that comes with a CD for training.  The first lesson (which I never finished) was on this!  Guess I better find a picture of my favorite subject and play away!

 

Thanks for starting this Joy!

[Joy Williams]

I have the same book, Dori, and have learned so much from it. The CD is a great help since it provides the photos for you to try the tutorials on.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Thanks so much Joy for starting this discussion. Right now I am having a few computer issues and I have to get some reports done before I fiddle with pictures in case things go wrong in the process. But I will definitely do this soon and your example is great!

[PJ and Zach]

I love this project, Joy!  I've been using a different way to select objects, and I'm excited to follow your step-by-step instructions and give it a try.  Thanks!

[Camilla and Darwin]

Oh, I'm all over this. :-) It is one of my favorite things to do. I'm going to do a new one but here is one I did of my nephew and Darwin a little over a year ago. I don't have the original photos but there were two pictures, just snapshots of each of them individually. I used the smart select tool in Cs5

[PJ and Zach]

Adorable picture, Camilla!  Love the snorkels.

[Joy Williams]

I love this Camilla! I never would have thought to try to use an underwater scene to put the Doodles in. I'll have to give it a shot!!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Love, love, love this!

[F, Calla & Luca]

Cute, cute, cute.

[PJ and Zach]

I've been putting pics of my relatives on their birthday on their F/B pages recently of them in a bday crown.  Tomorrow is my mother-in-law's bday... tough subject, and not a lot of pics of her to choose from.  She just freezes and tenses up whenever there is a camera around!  But here is what I came up with, using your step-by-step instructions from above.  I added a few 'props'.  Thanks for the idea.

Before pics:

And the after:

[Camilla and Darwin]

Fun!

[Joy Williams]

This turned out great! Let us know how she liked her card!!