mel_lewis

I have three individual portraits of the same person, and what I would like to do is join them into one photo. I will have the photo in the middle straight, and the photo on the left and right leaning away from the center photo left and right respectively, with the photos on the left and right slightly overlapping the center photo.I don't know how to proceed. Should I edit each photo individually and then join them, or should I use a different way? I would appreciate it if some one could walk me through the process so that I can grasp the concept. (By the way, I don't know how one can open more than one photo on the screen at the same time. I assume that this can be done, but I am clueless.)

nancy_s

Mel,

I only have a minute to get you started, then hopefully someone else will pipe up...

* open the image you want for the center
* duplicate that image and close original
* file>save as---change it to a .psd while editing
* image>resize>canvas size ---add extra canvas horizontally to accomodate the next two portraits
* open 2nd image, make sure it is same resolution as #1, create duplicate, change to .psd, close original
* hit Control key and minus sign once or twice to display it smaller and see #1 below
* click in the Layers Palette and drag the layer and drop it on #1
* close #2 portrait
* your composite has two layers now
* double click the "background" to change it to Layer 0
* open 3rd portrait and repeat steps above

You have 3 layers in your composite. Upper layers cover up things beneath unless lower opacity or transparent area. You can work on each layer individually, changing color etc. Move the upper two layers around using the Move Tool. You may want to select and isolate the face of #2 and #3 so no background covers up bottom stuff. Position to slightly overlap. Add more background if needed, experiment with this so far. Come back if you get stuck somewhere.

Nancy

tom_driscoll

I have a scenic photo with a bland sky. I have a separate photo with a glorious sky. I can't figure out how to cut the sky out of the scenic photo and substitute the glorious sky. Can anyone help?

jim_hess

Tom,

There are a number of ways to do this. Photoshop Elements has a number of selection tools that will enable you to isolate the sky. One method that I use when the picture will allow it is to use the magic wand tool to highlight the sky area. You can play around with the tolerance until you get it to work close to what you need. If you aren't able to highlight all of the sky with a single click then you can hold down the shift key and click additional areas until you have the entire sky highlighted.

Once you have the sky highlighted, copy it to the clipboard and then paste it back. This will put a copy of the sky on its own layer. Now, open your other photograph that has the sky the color that you want. Open your color picker and put the eye dropper cursor on the color that you want in the picture and click on it. Now go back to your picture with the bland sky and use the paint bucket to paint the color on this "sky" layer on your photograph. Now you can play with the blending modes and the opacity settings until you get it looking the way you want it to look. If there are clouds that have been painted over, and you want them to show, just erase appropriately on the "sky" layer.

These instructions probably are not very clear, but it might give you something to start with. If it doesn't work, then don't save the file and start over again.

dick_smith

Tom,

You can also do as Jim suggests with using the magic wand for the sky, and if it selects more than you want, i.e. there is some of the same color in the image as the sky, you can switch to the rectangular marquee tool, choose subtract from image (3rd icon on options bar) and then draw a rectangle over the bottom of the image to remove those colors from being replaced.

With your sky image open and active, go to Select>All, then Edit>copy. Now make your original active. Choose Edit>paste into and your sky image will be pasted into the selected area on your original. As long as you don't hit the enter key, you can move the image around inside the original to position it correctly. Likewise you can use the corner handles to resize it if necessary.

Don't forget to work on a copy of the origianl.

Dick

tom_driscoll

But I don't want a sky of all one color; I want one with clouds in it, too.

wendy_e_williams

Tom,

Work on a duplicate of the photograph with the poor sky. Use one of the tools to select the sky (I use the lasso) then once it is all selected do Edit>Clear. Next go to the photograph with the good sky and once again select all of the sky but then do Edit>Copy. Now go back to the first photograph and do Edit>Paste.

OK so now you have two layers ... put the new sky layer below the other. Go to the layer palette and drag the new sky layer below (you will probably need to rename the background layer ... just double click on it, in the layers palette, and you can then rename it).

OK so now you should have your new sky showing. If its too small or large then simply resize it using the Move tool. If you get stuck let me know and I will try and help.

jim_hess

Without seeing the picture it is rather difficult to tell you everything that needs to be done. But if you work with your opacity level on the "sky" layer that I described earlier you can get some of the variations that you want. And you can use the eraser to erase areas where you want clouds to show. This method has worked for me in the past, but a lot of the idea behind it depends a lot on the picture. So it may not be the right solution in this instance. You might want to take a look at the Replace Color feature as well.

kenneth_liffmann

Addendum:
My previous post assumes that you want to "create" a sky yourself, rather than copy&paste from another photo. I have done it both ways. The cloud brush is really neat and uses foreground-background colors.
Ken

kenneth_liffmann

Tom,
I downloaded a small file (free) of clouds here:
<http://share.studio.adobe.com/axAssetDetailSubmit.asp?aID=5643&back=http%3A%2F%2 Fshare%2Estudio%2Eadobe%2Ecom%2FaxBrowseSubmit%2Ea sp%3Fr%3D0%26t%3D11%26rppsel1%3D30>
If you use the technique oulined by Wendy above, use an appropriate color for the new sky and then apply the clouds. The download shows up in brushes.
You can find a color chart at the following, making color selection for the sky easy:http://www.nutrocker.co.uk/colorchart.html
Ken