New Photoshop Elements Challenge

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:

Favorite

0 members favorited this

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by F, Calla & Luca on February 12, 2012 at 12:31pm

I keep having to relearn things over again : ( I could not do this with your directions but muddled through on my own . If I were doing it for something other than practice I would have had to had spent more time on selecting etc. but this is the not so quick and dirty version: ) Here is the picture of Calla in Italy. Anyway, Calla enjoyed her little trip abroad.

Derived from my photos:

Permalink Reply by Jane, Guinness and Murphy on February 13, 2012 at 6:25am

Great job, F!

Permalink Reply by Joy Williams on February 14, 2012 at 10:51am

Nice job F ! Were my directions hard to understand? I will try to make them clearer if you let me know what was difficult for you. (told you I was not a good teacher!!)

Permalink Reply by Camilla and Darwin on February 14, 2012 at 11:45am

I like this one!

Permalink Reply by F, Calla & Luca on February 14, 2012 at 4:21pm

Thanks all. Joy, it was not your instructions but me I think. I had really to start from square one to read on how to turn a tool off, remember how to cut, inverse, layers etc. I have done so little of this and many months ago. But it was good to practice and realize how much this program can do. I should never believe any photo anymore : )

Permalink Reply by Jane, Guinness and Murphy on February 15, 2012 at 12:31pm

This was really fun...thanks so much Joy! We're all been hearing about how F Parker and Laurie's DH have just discovered that they may actually be brother and sister. I thought it would be fun to compare their photos...side by side...to see if we could find a family resemblance. I wish I had better quality pictures to work with...I had to do some hunting to find one of F. I think that you will all agree they MUST be brother and sister. They look exactly alike, especially in the cheese heads.