Superimposing Images in Photoshop

To blend two images together in Photoshop this is what you do.

1) Click on your top layer photo
2) Go to Layers >> Add Layer Mask >> Reveal All

A little box will appear next to the small image thumbnail on layers window. Make sure it is highlighted

3) Get a big airbrush and lower the strength of it (ah I forget what the word is called, there is a little bar where you select which brush you're using that you can change its percentage to make it stronger or weaker when you "spray")

4) Black paint makes parts of that image dissappear or "blend", White paint makes it appear over top. Spray in random areas and you'll figure it out quite easily

 

Oh yeah, when you change the brush "strength" you change the brush opacity NOT the image opacity

 

pixel3life.com is filled with photoshop tutorials if you need more help. :3

 

Hm. Haven't tried it that way. When I'm compositing, I normally add a new layer with the image I'm adding in, rotate and move it into position, then select the eraser, get an airbrush, lower the airbrush opacity to 50%-70% and airbrush-erase the edges. Next, use the burn and dodge tools to make the lighting match up between the new image and the background. I usually flatten the layers into one at this point, but you could just do it on the background layer - use the burn tool to create shadow for the object you've just added (if it's in the foreground).

The hardest composite I've done thus far was adding the beer bottle to my "Spring Break" photo. Corona bottles are *clear* and the background needed to show through the neck of the bottle. So I cut a hole in the bottle layer with the eraser between the edges of the bottle's neck. After flattening the image, I selected the neck of the bottle including the edges and the bit of background and fed it to the plastic wrap filter. As I recall it took a few tries to get the distortion settings right.

Generally speaking, I've had the best luck when the layer I'm compositing in is not completely opaque. I set it to about 50% while I'm aligning it so I can see what I'm doing, then take it to 70%-90% before I drop it completely.

The airbrush is your friend. If you blow a digital image up and look at the pixels you'll see that there is almost never a sharp change in color in a picture, even if you're going from the edge of a yellow pepper to a flesh tone hand holding it. They blend together. On high magnification, the airbrush tool will let you do this, and will blend the color of individual pixels together. I use this for changing eye color a lot. I've gone from blue-grey to red, brown to blue, blue to green. I've yet to encounter a color it won't work on, and it preserves the shading so your new color still looks right.