Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Photobob]

I would like to learn how to take a photograph of something, and then make a mask or is it called a template of it and cut away a section of it in order to super impose that image over a picture. Am I looking to do something that is really going take a great deal of learning through a class, or is this something that I can be accomplished rather easily on my own. I have a few days of vacation next week and I would like to devote that time to the learning of this task. My job does not give me a lot of spare time in order to really enjoy Photoshop CS2, and I like to devote a lot of my spare time to the learning of something new with this software. :)

[rkunderhill]

Moved to the Knowledge base forum, more appropiate for this. You can do a search and find what you are looking for.

[ScottL]

The best tool for this is the pen tool...

Zoom into your image to about 200% I find this zoom the best to work with.

Place anchor points around the area of the image you would like to "Cut out" until you your ending anchor point meets your beginning anchor point. This will form a connecting line around the entire image. Make sure you place achor points fairly close to one another to better form the shapes and curves. When you Zoom out again, you will see how close they really look... 1/2inch on your screen @ 200% will be connecting @ 30%

Then right click and select make selection, then feather by 1pixel, this will put little running "Ants" as they call them, around your image.

Then you can do one of 2 things, you can either select inverse and hit the delete key to remove all of the background (If white is your color of "Foreground" then hitting the delete key will turn everything outside the selected area white.)

Or, you can (Edit>Cut) the image off of that pallette and (edit>paste) the image onto the pallette you want it to be "imposed" onto.

One thing to remember is to make sure the highlights and shadows make sense between the 2 settings. In other words, if you cut 2 people from one image where the sun was to their left, make sure the image you are putting it onto also has a light source coming from their left... Or make appropriate edits to achieve the correct light.

Unfortunately I am not home to actually write up a tutorial with pictures... But hopefully this helps a little. If you have any more questions, feel free.

I am also sure others will chime in and give you their techniques.

In this image, I used the pen tool to select all the object, being the white BG was not 100% white, I made the selection, selected inverse and painted that BG white.

http://www.photozo.com/album/data/5723/M_T-CD.jpg

In this image I used the Pen tool as well, made my selection of the couple, placed it on a white canvas, and then made a selection of the bride alone from another image, pasted it, and worked with a soft white paint brush around the edges.

http://www.photozo.com/album/data/3923/5852Vows-1.jpg

IMO - If you get used to the pen tool, it will be the most precise tool to use for cutting images out, and editing isolated images.

[Landis]

Bob, I think there are numerous ways you can do this, and I am NOT the expert on the subject, but suspect some will chime in soon. About the only time I do something like this is when I take a friend fishing and we come home with small fish. What I can do is using the Magnetic Lasso Tool, I outline the small fish in a very enlarged view so you can go pretty much pixel by pixel. If the fish is against a plain background it's a lot easier, but that is never the case for me, so I just plug along until the fish is outlined. Then I copy the fish to a new layer and stretch it to make it appear larger. Then I can put it in the correct position so it appears the fisherman is holding it.

No before anyone gives me any grief for doing this for my fishing buddies, you have to realize that ALL Fishermen are confirmed Liars. It's part of the mystique of fishermen and everyone knows they lie all the time about the Big One that got away, etc. Among the Brotherhood of Fishermen, this is perfectly acceptable behavior. When I get to my other computer I will post a perfect example of how well this works.

[PJR]

Scott, I am trying to learn how to achieve the affect you have in the two examples you posted. Especially the 2nd one with the couple in the lower and the bride in the upper corner. I am using Photoshop 7, if you get a chance can you post a tutorial? I tried to do it using what you posted here but it didn't work, I must be doing something wrong! Any help would be greatly appreciated!
THanks
Patti

[brucep]

Welcome to the Photozo, Bob. You might find my tutorial (http://brucephilpott.com/photos/index.htm) on Masking informative.

P.S.
Lovely bridal (bride & groom-al?) composite!

[ScottL]

Scott, I am trying to learn how to achieve the affect you have in the two examples you posted. Especially the 2nd one with the couple in the lower and the bride in the upper corner. I am using Photoshop 7, if you get a chance can you post a tutorial? I tried to do it using what you posted here but it didn't work, I must be doing something wrong! Any help would be greatly appreciated!
THanks
Patti

Patti, I will try my best to get one up either tonight or Monday.

What I will post is the most basic use of the Pen Tool. Because the Pen Tool has so many uses and possibilities. But I will just post an easy way to make a selection.