PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 99
CAMERA & PHOTOSHOP SKILLS
2
Alignthelayers
In theLayerspalette,holdAlt anddouble-clickon the
Backgroundlayerthumbnailto unlockit.Goto Select>
Al l Layers(C trl+Alt+A),andyou’llseebothLayer0 andLayer 1
hi ghlighted.Nextgo toEdit>AutoAlignLayers. ChooseAutoand
cl ickOK.You’lllikelyseea littleblankareaat theedges.1
Combineyourseparateframes
in toa singleimage
Openthefirstof yourshotsintoPhotoshop
an d go toSelect>All(C trl+A),thenEdit>Copy(Ctrl+C).
Now openthesecondimageandgo toEdit>Paste
(C trl+V).Youcannowclosethefirstimagedown.
OpentheLayerspalette(Window>Layers) and you’ll
se e bothshotsin thelayerstackas Backgroundlayer
and Layer1.3
Add a Layer Mask andpa
Cl ick Layer 1’s thumbnail,thenclicktheAddlayermask
icon. Pick the Brush Tool(B),andin theOptionsbar
choose a size and hardness that suitstheareato workon.Set
Opacity to 100%, hit D to load black and paint over the area to
remove. If you make a mistake, press X and paint white to fix it.5
Recompose the background
Here, you can use the same methodto recomposethe
backdrop. Press Ctrl+J to duplicate the image, pick the
Move Tool (V) and drag the background down. Add a Layer Mask
and paint black along the bottom of the frame to reveal the original.
Flatten as before and then crop to the new format and save.4
Crop the edges
When you’re done maskinggo toLayer>FlattenImage.
There is still some blankspaceat theframeedges,so
pick the Crop Tool (C). In theOptionsbar,settheaspectratioyou
want, or hit Clear to work freehand. Drag the crop box over the
image to lose the blank parts and click the tick.
Combine the
shots in Layers
Photoshop’s layers allow us the ultimate flexibility
when it comes to image composition. Here we’ll take
the two images shot and blend them to get the parts
we want. See the video lesson for more tips.