Photo manipulation: how to insert a picture into a picture in Photoshop

Sometimes even an occasional combination of two images in one graphic editor, one of which, for example, is semi-transparent, can lead to so unexpected results that even the most incredible fruit of a rich imagination will seem like a naive childhood fantasy. If you combine the images meaningfully, you can create a lot of interesting, beautiful, funny or simply useful things, for example, replace the background with photos, insert a new object or character, combine what is incompatible in nature, create a colorful photo montage or a fantastic collage, over someone Joke, something to fake or attach to somewhere and much, much more.

Why "Photoshop"?

All this "bunch" of tempting possibilities can be implemented to some extent in many graphic editors, but the most simple, fast and effective is the "Photoshop" program, which, possessing a huge arsenal of tools for all sorts of manipulations with images, including deep transformations of their quality parameters , Will allow to realize any whim of creative imagination. That's why it's about how to insert a picture into a picture in Photoshop.

There are many programs, including online services, where you can create a collage in a few minutes and a few clicks or make a photo montage of quite acceptable quality. However, despite the bribing simplicity, efficiency and sometimes not very limited opportunities for creativity - it's still "consumer goods", but the possibilities of "Photoshop" in this sense are not limited. Of course, it is difficult to interrupt the flight of creative thought, but sooner or later it will have to "land", because before you start creating any photo manipulation, it is desirable to have a clear idea of how the future picture will or should look, if it's not just a photograph, Framed in a different image.

Depending on the quality characteristics and subject images of the original images, as well as the ultimate goal of the creative work, the imposition of pictures in "Photoshop" can be performed in various ways and means, but all of them in most cases include trimming images, extracting and cutting out fragments, scaling, transforming and General correction. The technical part of creating conventional photomontage in the program, provided the components prepared in advance, does not cause any special difficulties even for novice users, who are hardly familiar with its interface.

Ways to insert images

Inserting a picture in "Photoshop" is much easier than sticker "live" photos on the basis of the composition of the future photomontage. To do this, you can use the "Place" command in the "File" menu or, if The picture is already loaded into the program, transfer it from the native window to the target window of the song's base. Do this as follows: By turning on the Move tool (the topmost toolbar), grab the picture with the left mouse button and drag it up to the file name of the target window, opening it that way. Then, by lowering the object in a new window, the button is released, and the picture is inserted, "in a businesslike" position on a new layer. You can, of course, use the traditional, pedantic method by selecting (Ctrl + A) and copying (Ctrl + C) the image, and then inserting it (Ctrl + C) in a new window.

Often the question arises as to how to insert a picture into a picture in Photoshop with the possibility to select from a large number of images for comparison when creating different combinations. If there are many images, you can go to the Window menu and click on the "Arrange" line, open all the windows at once by selecting one of the options for their location.

In such a visual situation, you can simply drag the objects of the photo montage from the window to the window or from all windows to the target window of the composition's base.

Selecting and cutting out image fragments

All the listed methods indicate how to insert a picture into a picture in Photoshop if it is just a simple photomanipulation performed in the photomontage technique, where images are used entirely, but for more complex combinations, for example collages, the image processing scheme is somewhat complicated by the need to isolate and Cutting out objects, resizing, sometimes transforming and correcting. In addition, you must, of course, be able to harmoniously fit objects into the background of the composition. When creating collages, specific objects or fragments of image-components are most often used, from which an artistic composition is created, so it is necessary to have a good grasp of the selection and cutting techniques in Photoshop.

The Pen tool

Depending on the nature of the object being cut, you can use any of the standard selection tools, but when you need special accuracy, of course, the Pen tool is indispensable. The outline of the object is outlined, then, right-clicking on it, select the "Create selected area" command and drag the selected fragment to the desired window.

You can transfer the entire image, then add a layer mask and, selecting black, delete the brush with an extra brush. In this case, the opacity of the top layer is usually temporarily reduced to better control the placement accuracy and the harmony of the alignment of the object with the background. The rigidity of the brush is set depending on the requirements for the accuracy and severity of the boundaries of the components of the collage.

"Quick mask"

To select objects often use the "Quick Mask" tool, which allows you to literally draw (fill out) the image with a translucent red color selection area, which, in fact, is a black and white image. Where the mask is red, nothing is selected, and the transparent areas correspond to the complete selection.

Thus, drawing on a mask with black color widens the selection area, and drawing to white excludes the areas from the selection. Partial selection can be obtained by drawing a mask in various shades of gray or changing the opacity of the brush. Clicking the Quick Mask button on the toolbar again takes you to the standard editing mode, in which the mask disappears and a selection appears in the form of the drawn mask. Now it remains to remove the extra (Delete), and the cut out fragment is at your disposal.

Combining Images

Owning the most general principles of the work of graphic editors, it is easy to understand how to insert a picture into a picture in Photoshop, but in order to beautifully "fit" the images to each other, you need to learn to make imperceptible, smooth transitions between them and the background of the tracks. They are provided by the degree of feathering of the contours in the selection of fragments, as well as the opacity and rigidity of the brushes in the modes of fast and conventional masks. In addition, you can use partial selection and gradient fills (from black to white or vice versa) on masks, which effectively dissolve boundaries between images.

The harmonicity of the merging of pictures in collages depends on the correctness of the choice of the modes of layering. The most commonly used modes are "Soft Light" and "Overlap" combined with opacity, and in "Brightness" mode you can combine incompatible, taking images with absolutely different colors.