› › HOW TO> PHOTOSHOP USER>^ FEBRUARY 2020[ 32 ]
Step 22: Finally, let’s add the main subject. Here we have a cool
cosplay image of Harley Quinn I found on Adobe Stock. (Yes, we
have to be a bit copyright-sensitive here.) Anyway, whether you’re
using this image or one like it, try to find one with a rather simple
background. In the next step you’ll see why it helps.
You can click this link to download the low-res version of this
image. Double-click the image in the Libraries panel to open it in
Photoshop. To make it easier to work with the image, increase
the resolution of the practice file. (We normally don’t recommend
enlarging images, but this is only for practice purposes.) Go to
Image>Image Size, turn on the Resample checkbox, select Pre-
serve Details 2.0 from the Resample drop-down menu, set the
Width to 2,000 pixels, and click OK.Step 23: Go under the Select menu and choose Subject. Voilà!
Subject selected. This is a huge leap forward in this newest version
of Photoshop. Select Subject works really well and gives you a
great starting point, especially with simple backgrounds.
Once the initial selection is made, click the Select and Mask
button in the Options Bar. Here, we’ll clean up the edges around
her hair. In the Properties panel, set the View to Onion Skin (O),
and raise the Transparency to 100%. Go to the Toolbar and
choose the Refine Edge Brush tool (R). Use the Bracket keys on
your keyboard to adjust the size of the brush, and then paint
around the edges of her hair. Set the Edge Detection Radius to
1, and the Output To drop-down menu in the Output Settings
section to Selection. Once done, click OK.
The adjusted selection will be active. Press Command-J (PC:
Ctrl-J) to copy the selected area to a new layer.Step 24: Using the Move tool (V), drag-and-drop this
extracted subject into the main design image. Then,
use Free Transform (Command-T [PC: Ctrl-T]) to scale
and rotate the subject to fit in the composition. Press
Enter when done.©Adobe Stock/denissimonov