salam alaikum
ok here is a small tutorial i threw together in the last 20 mins
so its just a silly thing but it will help people grasp the idea of layers and layer masking.
our final product will be this image:
And to create it we will use 5 images which are listed below (click to view them:
http://www.geocities.com/ak44ak/img1.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/ak44ak/img2.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/ak44ak/img3.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/ak44ak/img4.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/ak44ak/img5.jpg
once you download the images
Fire up photoshop and open image "img2.jpg"
now go to the menu item called "Window" and under it select "Layers"
A new window will popup on the side - this is the layers window.
Currently you will notice the purple desert image is the only layer there.
To add a new layer simply SHIFT + CTRL + N
Now note a new layer has been added on top of the desert image but is empty. - This is how to add new layers. Layers are like pieces of plastic on top of one another. What is underneath can be seen unless you put an image on the layer.
Now open image "img1.jpg" and press CTRL + A to select all and CTRL + C to copy it Click on the desert image (we can call it our base image for easy reference)
Once you click the base image, press CTRL + V, this will paste the image of the woman on top of the desert pic. Note this image is automatically placed on a new layer.
Now do the same with image "img5.jpg" and then "img4.jpg" and finally "img3.jpg" (the same procedure as was for img1.jpg.
Note in the layers that each image will be placed on top of the one before it. Always remember that to edit an image placed in a layer you must click on that layer in the layer window and then work on the image.
ok next thing we wana do is play around with layers a little so that we feel comfortable with them.
Click on each layer one by one and move your select tool on the image surface, note that only 1 image will move and the rest will remain where they are. That is because each image is on a seperate layer.
So if you paint or do anything to a single layer the rest wont be effected at all.
Now finally lets get started on the hard parts.
Select the image of the woman's head and select from your file menu ---> LAYER---> ADD LAYER MASK ---> REVEAL ALL
notice in the layers window a small frame appears next to the image. This is the layer mask. Basically the mask is similar to a mask we use in real life. It allows us to hide some parts while show other parts. Always remember that selecting the layer mask frame will allow you to make changes to the mask, but if you select the image frame u can paint over and do things to the image without the mask being applied.
The REVEAL ALL layer mask works with the paint brush tool. When you select the white color (using your platellet) it will 'unhide' things you paint over.
When you select the black color it will 'hide' what is painted over.
Now using the black color paint the white areas around the womans head so that only the head remains with the hijab and the white boundary is gone.
Now repeat the layers step for each image in sequence,
- the woman in the super market: paint over her upper body and white surroundings only leaving the bottom half of her skirt intact
- the mans body: leaving his body but painting over all the rest of the things so that only the body remains
- and the dog image: only leaving the sign
Once you have done that u are ready to start arranging the images and resizing them.
To resize
From menu select --> EDIT ---> TRANSFORM ---> SCALE (to resize images)
Resize the woman image (in super market) to match the size of the mans body image and place it on the bottom part so it looks like a skirt worn with a shirt/jacket.
Resize the head of the woman to match the size of the mans body and place it over his neck.
Resize the dog sign to match the size of the body and then do EDIT---> TRANSFORM ---> ROTATE and rotate the image to the correct angle (as we want it to be shown in the final image)
Once all that is done - just arrange things around by resizing, moving and rotating until u get ur final image or desired results.
Finally once you are done, select LAYERS ---> FLATTEN IMAGE
and then select FILE ---> SAVE AS
select the correct file type (jpg in our case)
and name the file and save
there u go ur new image ready from 5 different images.
Ofcourse this is a very hastily written tutorial with a silly example of an image.
But if you try and follow it u will get a good work out on layers and masks.
If you need further help just go to google.com and type in "adobe photoshop tutorials" and you will find 1000's of them on the net on every aspect of photoshop.
Phew..ok now im gona go layer my tummy with some food lol
Aku