Here at LearnMyShot, our mission is to help you learn how to take photographs of anything. Well, what if you want to take a photo of a monolithic fantasy city, or a turtle with trees on its back? For the times you have visions beyond the elements of reality, photo manipulation can be your friend. If you know the right tools and tricks, you can take elements from different photographs and combine them to create fantastic looking images.
image by Jonas de Ro
The most common platform for photo manipulation is Photoshop, though free open source websites like gimp.com offer many of the same tools. Here’s some basic Photoshop functions that are useful when combining elements of different photographs into one image.
1. Layers
Layering is probably the most commonly used tool, and most useful, in Photoshop. The gist of layering is the ability to stack one thing on another without permanently altering the background image – for example, typing text in a new layer allows you to move and alter the text, without altering the image it sits on. The same goes for layers containing images or other objects; they can be moved about, adjusted, and transformed without damaging what’s beneath. It’s like making a collage, without the glue.
To add a second image as a layer, either drag the image into the file you want as background, or copy it using ctrl A and pasting it using ctrl V into the new file.
Here’s a tutorial that explains the basics of layers:
2. Layer Masks
Layer masks allow you to control a layer’s transparency. Perhaps you want to have part of an image visible, and another part transparent, without actually erasing part of the picture. Adding a layer mask allows you to choose which parts of an image you want to show, and obscure the parts you don’t – simply click the add mask button, which will show up as a white box next to your layer. White signifies visibility, so by painting part of the image black, you can render it transparent temporarily. You can also use any of the selection tools (magic wand, magnetic lasso, quick selection, etc) to more finely select which part you want visible or invisible.
Here’s a tutorial explaining the basics of layer masks:
Video by Joseph Brewster
3. Transforming objects
In the case of creating a monolithic city, you would be selecting bits of architecture from different photographs and combining them to create a massive city-like structure. Once you have these pieces selected using layers and layer masks, you can move them, copy them, and re-size them to fit your needs. To transform one object, make sure its layer is selected on the layer panel. Using your “move” took, you can drag it. By going to edit transform, or edit free transform, you can adjust your object’s scale, rotate it, or skew it, to change its size and perspective.
If you are duplicating a masked object, you can press alt-drag (Windows) or option-drag (Mac). You should also adjust the exposure of each object to make sure they blend well together.
Now, you may or may not be ready to creative a massive monolithic city like this guy did, or transform a tortoise’s back into a magical garden. But you can certainly start trying – and at the very least come up with some interesting results. For the full tutorial visit psd tuts+
Give it a try and post your best results in comments below.
