Absolute Beginner's Guide to Digital Photography

CHAPTER 16 THE IMPORTANCE OF LAYERS AND MASKS 245

FIGURE 16.8
Open all the
images and
compare them.

Examine each component to see how difficult it will be to remove it from its back-

ground. If the selection process will take too much time, you might want to use

another component image.

Adjust All the Components

Compare your sketch with the components on the screen. Will you need to resample

any of the components so that they all have the right size? Components that are

too large can be scaled down, but components that are too small might need to be

rescanned at a higher resolution. If you need to make scans for any missing compo-

nents, be sure their pixel resolutions are compat-

ible.

When reducing the size, use the Image, Image

Size command (see Figure 16.9). Check the

Resample Image box and select Bicubic from its

drop-down menu. Bicubic resampling retains the

highest image quality, although it takes more

time than other options.

Adjust the contrast, color balance, and satura-

tion of all the components. You will get a chance

to fine-tune them later, so this adjustment can

be approximate.

tip

You can also scale the

image after pasting it onto

the background. Click Edit,

Transform, Scale and hold

down the Shift key while

scaling.