Lessons

Lesson Info

Blending Images Together

all right. Well, guitar God is should appreciate this next technique if she's still hanging around with us because we're gonna be using a photo of rock guitar guy and we're gonna fade it into, Ah, an adoring crowd. So several useful techniques that you learn with this one. If you're following along, go ahead and choose file open. And this time we're gonna use folder number 25 called Soft Oval Vignette, and I'm gonna show you several different ways to blend images together to get your creative juices flowing. But let me start off by showing you what I'm gonna show you what I'm gonna teach you. Rather, this is what we're gonna create. So if you look over here in my layers panel, you'll see we have a photo of a guy playing guitar and we've got a layer mask next to it that is oval in shape. And below that, you'll see the photo of the adoring crowd. So what I've done here is I've used there's one of two tools or two tools rather that you can use. You can use theological marquee tool to draw...

the oval, or you can use one of elements built in shape tools because you also have ovals down here as well. You have an ellipse tool. So it really doesn't matter which one you use. The point is to draw the shape so we'll go ahead and start off with the oval selection, Marquis. But first, I want to show you how to get to images within the same elements document, because that is crucial for making a collage. Okay, so let's go ahead and close this guy. And now I'm gonna open up the original source images I use. I'm gonna open up both of them at the same time, and you, too can do this. You're not limited to opening just one file in this open dialog box, you can click the 1st 1 and shift, click or command or control. Click additional files to open them all up in one time. Once you get them all open, they'll show up in the project Been, which is at the very bottom of the elements workspace. And from there you can drag and drop photos into other documents, which is what you need for a collage. So go ahead and open up. These two fabulous I sought photo images and you're not seeing my project men right now because we've had it collapsed for the duration of this workshop. But it lives down here at the very bottom. I'm gonna double click the dark gray area to the right of the tab and you'll see it pop open. Now, if you still don't see a project being anywhere on your screen, remember that you can always try it up to the window menu in turn on different panels of Project Ben's just another panel so you can go right down here to panel or project band Rather. And that will make that open if it somehow has gotten closed on your system. So what we want to do now is we want to get, uh, thes images into the same Photoshopped document. What doesn't really matter which one you drag in tow? What document? Because you can rearrange layer stacking order. Okay, so it really doesn't matter which one you drag from where, since we're already on the guitar shot, I'm gonna go ahead and click and drag the crowd file up into this document here. So all I'm gonna do is click and hold on the crowd shot and physically drag it up while I've got hold of the mouse button. Okay, so you can see that little outline of the miniature picture. Okay, Once it appears somewhere within your document, you can release your mouse button. And that photo will then appear on its very own layer within that other Photoshopped document. So now, since I'm finished with my project, then I'm gonna go ahead and collapse it by double clicking that dark gray area. So now it's time for me to consider what image I want on top of my collage, because the layer on top has the power to cover up whatever is underneath it. Well, I want my guitar guy to be on top, so I need to drag this crowd photo below my guitar layer. Well, if I try to do that, elements will squawk at me in the form of this circle. Slash saying you cannot do this and that simply because elements will not let you put anything below a lot background layer and to unlock it, all you have to do is give that locked layer a double click. You can give it another name if you want because, well, practice good layer habits here. And only in this one guitar. If we were doing a complex collage, the naming the layers would be would be a little bit more important. So go ahead and click. OK, now the layers unlocked so I can click and drag the crowd below the guitar layer. Now it's time for us to draw the shape on top of the guitar layer, and then we're gonna add a layer mask, which is gonna pick up the shape. Okay, so we're going to start out with the elliptical marquee tool. Now, if he wanted to fade these two images together using a square, you could use the rectangular marquee tool, But we're gonna do a nice soft oval. So we're gonna choose the elliptical marquee tool, and I'm gonna go ahead and draw the oval onto the photo so I'm gonna click and drag diagonally downward and get the oval roughly the size that I want. Now I'm still holding down my mouse button, which gives me the ability to reposition the oval wherever I want while I'm drawing it. Okay, let me show you another tip for drawing those selection marquees. I'm gonna get rid of the selection that I've just created by choosing select D Select. And now that I look over my layers panel, I'm not on the right layer. Okay, so I want to add this shape and mask to the guitar layers. I want to be sure and click the guitar layer, see how important it is to always go. Yes, that layers panel see where you're. So if you'll notice the first time I drew the Oval Marquis, it started drawing it from the top lift down. You can also make it create itself from the center out, which is what I like to do most the time because I never, ever get my mouse in the right position. And I always have to press the space bar to move that oval around where I want it. So I'm gonna de select again. This time I'm gonna hold down the option key on a Mac or Ault on the PC, and that's going to make this oval draw itself from the inside out. See, that's happening if I want to restrict this shape to be perfectly circular, add the shift key and you'll draw a perfect circle Hey, all those keyboard shortcuts work for the rectangular marquee tool as well, as well as all of elements shaped tools. Okay, somebody go ahead and de select again. I'm using the keyboard shortcut for De Select instead of going up to the select menu and choosing de Select and pressing command or control D for D Select. So I'm gonna do that one more time. I'm gonna hold down the option or all key, and that's going to make the shape draw itself from the center out, which I have a little bit better luck with. And then again, I'm still holding their my mouse button. I'm holding down the option or all key. I could still add the space bar, and that would give me the ability to move the shape around on the document while it's being drawn. So then I can release the space bar and continue dragging outward to make it bigger or smaller. A lot of keyboard shortcuts with that when I don't expect you all to to memorize the hose right off the bat. But once you get used to doing this kind of thing, they are quite helpful. Okay, so when you get it just right. You can release all the buttons and keys and elbows and whatever else you're using. So the next thing we want to do is we want to give this oval and I soft edge. Well, there's two ways you can do that. You could use the feather control right here in the options bar, but that doesn't give you any kind of preview. It would be an absolute guessing game as to how much feathering you need to add to get the softness that you want. I don't like guessing games. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna use the refined edge dialogue box that we used yesterday when we were fixing up our animal. Why I? Because we get a nice preview using that red overlay of that quick mask. So we're gonna trot up Teoh the select menu, go down to refine edge. Now, to preview the softness of the selection, you need to pick one of these four preview methods right here. I find for collages of this nature that either the black or the white overlay lets me see the softness of the edge the best. So I'm gonna go ahead and click black. So now what you're doing is you're seeing your selection over laid onto black. Right now, our feather amount is set to one, which means there's only the slightest bit of softening that's occurring on this selection. But if we drag that slider to the right as I release my mouse, but you're seeing the preview of the extra softness now, I'll tell you right now, if I would've dialed in the feather amount in the options bar, I would not have guessed to dial in that many pixels. You know, we've got a feather of 46 little over 46 pickles going on. I probably would have went with 20. And after I mast it, it wouldn't have been soft enough for me, so I would have had to undo a couple of times and redo it. So that's the benefit of using this refined edge dialogue box because you get a preview of what the softening is gonna look like. So again, I'm gonna pump this up a little bit more, and it doesn't really matter what these numbers are. It's a visual things, so drag it to the right until it looks good to you and on certain images, it might look better to preview it on a white background that might give you a better idea of what that feather is gonna look like. Okay, so once you get it all set up, you could say OK, and you're not going to see any change happen at this point because the change the feathering is only going to be visible once we add our layer mask. So don't let it throw you if you don't see any change in your selection after you close that refinish dialog box. But now we're ready to add our layer mask. So all we have to do is hop down to the bottom of the layers panel, click that little circle within the square icon again. You're only going to see this inversion nine of the program. Give it a single click. And we have masked the edges of that image according to the shape that we drew with the selection tool. Now, right off the bat here, I see that we need to scoot our guitar player over. Okay, so we do need to go grab the move tool for that. So I'm gonna go over here to the tools panel. Grab and move tool orders press V from move, so make sure that you're on the right layer that you want to actually move and then dis click and drag. So then I can position that part of the collage anywhere I want. This is a fabulous thing for wedding photographers. Can you even imagine fading the happy couple into a bed of roses? And you could buy that bed of roses from Istock photo or a bed of nails, whichever is suitable. So now what else might you want to do to this image? Well, what if you wanted to move the guitar player within the mask? Because right now, as I'm moving in around, the whole mess is moving. What's inside the mask and the mask itself? Because, L. Mrs seems, if you're moving one, you probably want to move the other. That's not always the case. If you want to reposition the guitar player inside that oval, you have Teoh unlock the layer in its mask Now. Earlier, I noticed a couple of glazed eyeballs when I was talking about the importance of knowing what part of the layer is activated at any given time. This is another great example of that importance. Because remember when we were using the text layer and we added a layer mask to manually, we could switch between activating the mask or activating the actual text. I think this is going to really drive that point home for you because once we unlock these two pieces of that layer from each other, we can then move them independently of the other one. So I'm gonna click the little chain link to unlock them in the chain. Link will disappear. Now you need to activate which part of that layer you want to move. Do you want to move the mask or do you want to move the photo inside the mask? Okay, so it's an either or situation. So notice how, as I'm clicking each one, that bracketing is changing. That's how I know which part of that layer is active. Okay, So if I want to move the photo inside the mask, I want to make sure that I've got that extra corner bracket on the photo part. The photo thumbnail. So now I still have my move tool activated over here in the tools panel. When I click and drag along the image, I'm moving the photo inside the mask. The mask itself is not moving, so I could reposition the photo inside the mask. But just like when we pushed the photo of the beach and the pineapple through the Maui text, you got to be cognizant of where the edge of that photo is because see if I move it too far, then I you know you're seeing the edge of it, which is not what you want. So let's say that's all well and fine if I want to move the mask on Lee. But not the photo that I could click to activate the mask. Thumbnail. Now I'm moving. Just the mask. Okay, so this is this is helpful toe let you find tune your collage without actually having to back out of it and recreate it when she get everything positioned just right. I do advocate, uh, locking those two together again. All you do is mouse back over where that chain link used to be and click, and we'll come right back Now. You don't accidentally move one when you don't mean Teoh, which is easy to do if you've still got the move till active. The other thing I might do to this piece of art is crop out the transparent edges, you know, because if you start with two photos and you start blending and fighting them together, you may end up with extra space and you can always crop that caught that back out. So that's a real handy one. Let me show you another variation on that technique. Oh, sure, you can rotate the mask to make it go up like the the fretboard of his guitar, so it's not completely horizontal. That is a very, very good question. Let's just give that a shot. So the question is, can we rotate the mask? So I'm gonna unlike the to, because if I bring up free transform, which is where your rotate tool it's hidden, it's going to rotate the whole miss, which may be what you want. But if it's not, let's say we just want to rotate the mask. I'm gonna make sure to click to make the mask active, and then I don't know if you remember. But yesterday we were talking about using the move toll. I told you that there's an option called show bounding box. It's on by default, and it always gives you this re sizing and rotating box. Any time you have the move tool active, you're going to see that box around your image. It personally drives me a little crazy, so I keep it turned off, but you can turn it off and on as you need it. So if you need to rotate or resize, make sure the bounding boxes on and to rotate. All you have to do is hover your cursor below one of the corner points, and it will change into a curved, double headed cursor. Once you get that, you can click and drag to rotate Salt Museum out and let's see if it's actually rotating. Are May I ask it? ISS? So we're rotating on Lee. The Mass ruse. Effin. Is everybody dizzy now? So, yeah, absolutely. And when you get finished with the rotating or the you could even resize them. Ask if you wanted see how it's getting smaller and larger. Okay, so when you get finished, she always have to tell elements. Hey, I'm done with this thing because it has a one track mind while you have a bounding box on your screen with the little green check mark or the little circle slash. It will not do anything else because it's focused on that one thing. It can't do anything else until you tell it you're finished with that. So again, you do that by clicking the check mark. Double clicking within that bounding box pressing return, pressing. Enter sticking your tongue out And I'm kidding on that. Okay, so let's take a look at another a similar thing, and this is gonna be twofold. So I'm gonna go ahead and delete this layer mask, and I'm control clicking or right clicking on the mask itself. And I'm gonna choose delete layer mask from that shortcut menu that pops up and I'll zoom back and little bits. We can see more of the image. So let's say for whatever reason that you want to give, you want to give this guitar photo rounded corners. It's a real popular thing to do on websites and scrapbooking and things like that. Right now, you can absolutely do that. In that case, you want to start out with one of elements shaped tools. It just so happens that one of the built in shapes is a rounded rectangle. Now I'm gonna do this and the pretense of making a collage. But you can do this just on one photo doesn't have to be a collage, so we're gonna choose rounded rectangle and the first question becomes, How around the do you want it to be? And you can change that by using the radius field in the options bar be gone Tool tips. There you go so you can change the radius. The higher the number, the more rounded the corners will get lower the number the closer to sharp. There they won't ever get sharp, but they'll be close. So I happen to know from experience around 40 p x for pixels, and you have to include the unit of measurement. Okay, 40 p extra pixels. Avidan of That'll make a a nicely rounded corner so I can click and drag with my rounded rectangle tool, and I can see the shape being applied atop the photo. When you release the mouse button, we're back in the same push a photo through a shaped situation that we've been in for about an hour now. so we want Teoh. Position the photo above the shape. You want to shove it through press and hold option or ault on the PC and hover your cursor over those two dividing lines. And when you clip them together like that, then your photo has taken on rounded edges, which is a real nice thing to do. You can try all they long to do that with the rectangular marquee tool, and you might be treating the thinking. Oh well, I can just feather the edges and that will make them rounded. It will make them around it. But they'll also be really, really soft and faded out, which may be what you want. Okay, so actually, I'll duplicate that layer me, turn these guys off for a second. I'll show you the difference. So here is the regular rectangular marquee tool, and if I added a feather to it, let's say I added a pixel feather because I had a 40 pixel radius on the rounded rectangle tool. As I click in, drag the box across the photo and I let go I mouse button. It looks like we're going to get rounded Edges were really not I'm gonna add a layer mask because when you're drawing with E marquis tools, you don't get that extra shape layer like we did with the built in shapes. So I'm gonna add a layer mask, and that's what we get so the corners are soared around it. But if they're only rounded because they're blurred, so that's the difference. So I cannot tell you how many people I have encountered that have been ready to further computers out the window, trying to get rounded corners using this tool because it cannot be done. So let's look at that in comparison to what we made hoops using the shape tool in any time you use these guys down here, these built in shapes, they do appear on their own layer. And then you use that clipping group trick to do that so we could have done the same thing with the oval. So go ahead, delete this shape layer in, delete that layer, so we're kind of back to where we were square one so I could have gone down here and chosen the Ellipse tool drawn my shape. I can still use my space bar trick to position the shape onto the photo, and then I can drag the shape below the photo and click the two of them together like that. So all different iterations that you can do with, um, collages like this, but the rounded edges one is very useful. So let's keep cruising along cause we're quickly running out of time. I can't believe it's over. So seen. Let me show you another way to blend images together. Actually, I'm gonna open up several ones here. Okay, So I'm a pop open my project Been so I could see all the photos that I've got, what we're gonna create using these two I stock images, this one and this one. We're gonna blend those two images together using ingredient mask All we're going to do. And you've done this already. We're gonna create a layer mask, add a layer mask, toe one of the layers, and then we're gonna use the Grady int tool inside the layer mass, just like we did at the top of the day to make the faded color to black and white techniques exact same thing, except without the black and white boots. Okay, so this is something like we're going to create here. So if we take a look at how this collage was made incidentally, this is me. Ha, ha. That's my bike. Her name of supera for the Blue Dragons here. Yes. So anyway, I started out with the full color image of me on my motorcycle, and then I used a Grady a map adjustment layer to make it a high contrast, black and white. So this is all stuff that we've done And then because this was the old version of elements, I had to use an empty adjustment layer to get at the mask, and I had to click him together, which we won't have to do. So when we do this technique, we're gonna end up with one less layer because we can add a layer mask to this speedometer. And so I'm hiding the whole left bottom portion of the speedometer using a layer mask in it. Okay, so that's similar to what we're going to create. But using different photos and again in the in the workshop files, you get all of this stuff so you not only get the original source images, you get the the final pieces of art that I created to you. Okay, so here we are, back in our motorcyclists. So we're gonna fade him. Let's say it's the same guy. We're going to fade the helmet shot into the back shot. So once we've got him open and our project men is open, we're going to click and drag one photo into the other documents. So now we can close our project band. So now we've got both photos on different layers. This is so easy. You will not believe it. All you have to do is add a layer mask to the layer in which you want to hide part of it. Okay. I don't want to hide any of the bike shot. I want to hide part of the I want to hide this whole left section of this photo to look like it's blending into the shot on the layer underneath. So I'm gonna add a layer mask, and then I'm gonna go grab the Grady in tool over here from the tools candle. Now, because I'm gonna paint with the Grady and tool inside of a layer mask. I want to make sure that I'm using black and white as my colors. So it's just easy for me to pop right up to the Grady and preset picker and choose that 3rd 1 which is a black white radiant. Yes, I could have changed my foreground background color chips, but I have a habit of this using the radiant, preset picker. Click. OK, make sure you've got linear for this radiant style, which he probably will unless you've changed it. And then you can just click and drag. Okay, The width that you drag is what determines how softer, how hard the transition is. Now I want to move my helmet guy. I want to move him over to the right so he's still activated in my layers panel. So I'm gonna go grab the move tool, and I'm just gonna scoot him to the right. Okay, That way we get more of the bike in the collage. Now I'm gonna click back on my radiant mask or my mask here, switch back to my Grady int tool, and now I'm gonna keep clicking and dragging to get the effects that I really want. So I'm starting my drag just inside of the hard edge of the photo, okay, because I don't want to end up with that halo of hard edge of that photo, you know the shadow of it. So that's because so for that reason, I'm starting my drag or my gravy in kind of inside the margin of that photo because I don't want any of that edge to be hanging around. Okay, so that's one way to do it easy. Yes. Yeah. Get the two images into the same document, add a layer mask and then used the Grady in tool inside the layer mask. Now, the question would quickly become because I can feel it. Can't you just use the regular brush tool to do the same thing? Of course you can. But using ingredient tool will give you a nice even fade from one image to the other. So I'm gonna go ahead and fill my layer mask with white because black conceals white reveals. So we're gonna be revealing all of what's on that layer which were back to square one now. So after I've added my layer mask and again, we did that just by clicking the circle within the square at the bottom of the layers panel. I can come over here grab my regular brush tool Black conceals white reveals press X to flip flop your color chips so that blacks on top I'm gonna increase the size of my brush quite a bit to, um because I want a nice, soft fade that I'm gonna hand paint on this time it's in And I got a fairly big brush I can just paint and be more precise on exactly what I hide and show so I can get a curved fade this way instead of just a straight you know, letting your fade and again it's so forgiving If I decided maybe I zoom out a little bit so I could see the whole photo And I have no hidden this much of him. I made a side eating it. I want that part back What we've been using layer mask for two solid days. Now black conceals white reveals press X to flip flopper. Color chips paint back across that area to reveal it. Now, the only other thing I might do this particular collages. I might move the bike shot over to the lift now so I could do that easily. Click that layer to activate it go grab the move tool. And because it's a locked background layer, I can't do anything. So give it a quick double click to unlock it. And now you can click and drag that layer over. You just want to be careful up. See right here. I've got a little bit of transparency coming through, so I'm gonna click back on my layer mask and make sure that everything on that layer in that spot is revealed. So I'm gonna switch to the brush tool I'm still got. Why is my foreground color chip? So I can this bring back that portion of the guy in the helmet that I had previously painted over before? Crazy. Useful for photographers. Really? Really. You can create some unique pieces of art, and this is a whole separate thing. So you can totally do whatever pricing scheme you have for the shoot and then offer additional pieces of art like this at a separate charge. And if you've got some great examples like this to show them Oh, my gosh, there absolutely going want it because it's not gonna be something that they can create, you know? So that's another way, Teoh to bring some money into your into your studio There Any questions on the on the collage techniques? So far, we've got, um, two more to show Just one quick question from Palla Joe was Do you always drag from left to right when using the grating and tool? Fabulous. Fabulous question. The reason I dragged from left to right is because I was using a black toe white radiant because I wanted to hide the left hand portion of the photo. I wanted black to be on the left hand side. So because I said it to black to white, I started my drag from left to right. So you don't always have to do that. It depends on what part of the photo you wanted to hide. If we wanted to hide hips, I was going and delete this and add another layer mask if we wanted to hide the right portion of the photo than I would have dragged from right to left. Okay. So I can grab the Grady int tool. And if I drag from right toe left, you'll see that the right portion of the photo has being hidden. It depends on what part of the photo you want to hide, place where you start, the drags will be black. And when you in the Dragobilje White regardless, if they go left to right or right to left? Yes, Absolutely. Yeah. Shall we see another one? I was gonna suggest to put that chronometer in the black space of his helmet, but oh, yeah, that absolutely. So your collages don't have to be limited to just two. You could have a slow, and the speedometer would have been a great addition. You could have had to bike helmet and the speedometer. Yeah, okay. The next one I'm gonna show you. That was a soft, radiant mask. The next one is folder 27 called the Blend Collage. And this one is so easy will not believe it. So we're going to start out with all the source images for our ski bunny. Okay, Now, you do have this full layered file. It's at the top of the full edit folder. Okay, so it lives up here. We used it to discuss layer types yesterday, So that's where the finished version of that one lives. But down here, in folder number 27 we have the source files that I use for it. And all three came from Istock Photo Someone go ahead and choose open. They're all gonna pop open in my project, then down here. So now it's just a matter of dragging them into one document. So I'm gonna start off with my ski bunny girl right here, and I'm in a click and drag that file and then I'm gonna click and drag that file. So now I've got three layers. Three different photos within the same document. Gonna go ahead and collapse my project. Man, we talked about blend modes, several different points during this class. We talked about him when we were colorizing a grayscale. We talked about them in our photo dodge and burn technique. Earlier, we were lightening and darkening by hand and blend modes just to recap live in this pop up menu at the top of your layers panel. And they simply let you control how color on one layer interacts or cancels out color on other layers in the image. Okay? And and gave you a couple of tips for figuring out what these things do by looking at the first blend mode in the category. Okay, So anything in the dark and category is gonna create a darker image than you started out with. Anything in the Latin category is going to create a lighter image overall than what you started out with. If I don't want to create a really trendy, grungy, texture riddled collage, I'm gonna go for something in the dark and category because I wanted to kind of be dark and edgy. And this is pure experimentation again, a great opportunity for your favorite beverage while you are experimenting with these blend modes. So I know just from doing it that color burn in linear burn really great for making grunge texture riddle collages. So I'm gonna choose linear burn here and immediately I'm seeing through to the layer below, which is pretty in them. So I'm gonna change the blend mode of this other layer down here till a near burn as well, so that we're seeing through to the skier girl because anything in the dark and category completely knocks plight right out. Because if you choose something in the dark and category, anything in this set right here elements is gonna look at the color on this layer. Look at the color on this layer and the darkest colors win a color war of sorts. Anything that's lighter than the lightest colors in both layers will completely drop out. So why is the lightest color of also it disappears. So when I change this layers, blend moto linear burn B. Why that you're seeing right here is gonna completely open up, and we're going to see the skier girl down below. So get on that layer. And then she used linear burn. So now we're saying the skier girl, and this is great experimentation. Seriously, put a whole bunch of photos in the same document and just start changing. Bloom knows that is the best way Teoh learn how they work and to really get your creative juices flowing. So I'm now going to go back and lower the layer opacity because some of my texture layers are a little overpowering. I don't want to be quite that grungy, So I'm gonna lower the layer opacity of a couple of these guys. This a little bit in this, you know, I'm just arbitrarily guessing. Now. The other thing that I've got going on right here is since my starburst layer had a lot of yellow in it. When you yellow on top of snow doesn't really work out so well. So we're gonna use elements new layer, masking ability to hide this image from everywhere except for the top part of the photo. Okay. And I probably could get away with lower in the opacity of both these guys a little bit more, so we can kind of open it up and see what's happening here. Okay, so I want to add the layer mask. My goal here is to hide the bottom half of this yellow starburst. So we're gonna go add the layer, mask the circle within the square icon at the bottom and using any tool you want that will apply black paint. I'm gonna grab the brush tool I want to conceal. So I'm gonna flip flop my color chips. And so now I'm hiding that starburst. I hit a little too much, So I'm gonna press eggs to flip, fought my color chips back again and bring back just that one spot they can Sure that we don't let any of that yellow touched the snow. And I'm also gonna hide uh, the yellow from her face in her helmet. And if I wanted to, I could come back in and even add a layer mass to this kind of snowy layer if I wanted. But actually, Candace, lower the layer rapacity a little bit more, and that's absolutely it. That's how quickly you can create something incredibly unique now. Admittedly, I did not draw these other two images here, OK at all, and in fact they're still open. You see, you can see how interpret they are. These I got from Istock photo and for photographers of such a great resource to download stuff like that to use in conjunction with your own photography to create unique piece of art that you can get paid for. That's the goal here.