How to add a photo to a photo in Photoshop?.

How often do users who have launched Photoshop for the first time have a desire to combine two photographs, for example, to place themselves, their beloved, on the top of Elbrus or under the arches of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris? Take my word for it - very often. How to add a photo to a photo in Photoshop is one of the most numerous questions for beginners taking their first steps in this graphics editor.

By the way, it sounds a little wrong. Overlaying, merging photos belongs to another technique, which is also quite interesting and attractive. A professional will rather say differently - how to make a photomontage from photographs, since this most accurately reflects the essence of this operation. However, amateurs do not pay attention to such nuances and say how it is more convenient and understandable for them. Having dealt with the terms a little, let's get down to the main thing - to study the technique of photomontage.

Idea and preparation

In any business, the idea is important, and then everything else. Our idea is simple, but at the same time quite original. We decided to equip the city pond with a real sea lighthouse. The plan has been approved, we are starting to act. Launch Photoshop and immediately go to "File

In principle, we have achieved the main goal - overlaid one photo on another. However, if the tower of the lighthouse looks pretty decent, then the stones on which it is located look like aliens from another world. Therefore, to make everything look beautiful, we will use a simple but effective trick. Go to the layers palette and duplicate the pond layer. Just become the cursor on it, press the left mouse button and drag it to the bottom of the palette on the "create a new layer" icon.

As a result, we get the following picture.

Next, move the new layer ("Background copy") to the topmost row. To do this, select the layer and press Ctrl Shift] (move to front).

Again, look down at the bottom of the layers palette and click on the "quick mask" icon. Now the "Background copy" layer takes on the properties of a mask layer. Why do we need it? We'll see now.

Select the brush tool (our settings are shown in the screenshot), assign it a black color and start drawing with inspiration in the area of ​​the stone ridge.

The quick mask icon located on the layer on the right side must be selected. At this stage, there are no restrictions on creativity. You can experiment indefinitely by changing the color, opacity, size and softness of the brush. Remember - black color reveals the underlying layer, and white, on the contrary, masks.

Necessary strokes

Having achieved the desired result, we put the final gloss. We have expressed this in cropping the picture. Press "C", activating the "frame" tool, and crop our masterpiece, leaving only the most valuable: the lighthouse and the pond.

We admire the result obtained and take the final step - we reduce the layers.

In the upper right corner of the layers palette, click on the triangle, calling the palette menu. Here we select the command "Perform mixing" and get the final picture.

The last step

Save the fruits of our photomontage - “Open