325 ■ COMBINING ELEMENTS FROM MULTIPLE PICTURES For Photoshop Elements Users: Other Ways of Merging Images (Continued) Ph oto by Jo sh An on Try It! Open the images called DOF1 and DOF2 from www.sybex.com/go/photoshopnature, and practice combining them. Combining Elements from Multiple Pictures When you start combining elements from various pictures, you begin to be more cre- ative with your images. Ethically, it’s important to acknowledge that what you’re pre- senting is not a documentary photograph but rather a photo illustration or photo art. That doesn’t make it inherently more or less valuable than a straight photograph— just different. Often, a photo illustration can convey the essence or spirit of a place better than a single straight photograph. But creating something that didn’t exist and claiming it is not a manipulated photograph creates trouble for all photographers. The image in Figure 8.17 has impact, but it’s a composite and needs to be presented as such. It’s essential to make good selections when creating composites. We’ll cover some advanced selection techniques here and then show you how to put your selec- tions to work to create a variety of composites. 607343c08.indd 325 4/11/10 11:06:53 PM 326 c h a p t e r 8: COMPOSITES ■ Figure 8.17 Images like this can often be confused with “lucky” shots and ethically must be presented as composites. Ph oto by EllEn An on Advanced Selection Methods Chapter 4, “Foundations,” covered some of the basic selection tools, but when you make composites, sometimes you need more sophisticated means of making selections. Different techniques work most effectively with different images, so it pays to under- stand several approaches. If you know ahead of time that you’re likely to want to use one part of a picture as a composite, it’s a good idea to try to photograph it so that it contrasts as much as possible with the background. That makes it easier to select, no matter which tech- nique you choose. Creating a Selection within a Channel This sounds a lot more difficult than it is, but don’t let the sound of it intimidate you. Recall that your images have pixel information in three channels: a Red channel, a Blue channel, and a Green channel. You access these channels by clicking the Channels panel, as shown in Figure 8.18. By default, Channels shares a panel window with Layers. Figure 8.18 To access the individual channels, click the Channels panel. Sometimes it’s easier to make a selection using one of the three color channels rather than the RGB image itself. This is the case when there is good contrast within 607343c08.indd 326 4/11/10 11:06:54 PM 327 ■ COMBINING ELEMENTS FROM MULTIPLE PICTURES a particular channel. For example, making a selection of a sky based on a channel is quite useful when the sky meets trees and vegetation with many fine branches. We’ll demonstrate this approach to select the sky in this poppy image: 1. Choose Channels, and then click each of the three channels, one at a time, to determine which has the best contrast in the area of interest. With the poppy picture, clearly the Blue channel offers the best contrast to separate the sky and the flower, as you can see in Figure 8.19. Red channel Green channel Blue channel Figure 8.19 Looking at the Red, Green, and Blue channels, it’s clear that the Blue channel oers the most contrast between the sky and the ower. 607343c08.indd 327 4/11/10 11:06:56 PM 328 c h a p t e r 8: COMPOSITES ■ 2. Make a copy of the channel offering the most contrast—in this case, the Blue channel—by dragging that channel layer to the New Channel icon at the bottom of the Channels panel. 3. Maximize the contrast between the area you want to select and the rest of the image by choosing Image > Adjustments > Levels. This is one of the few times you make changes directly on the pixels because there is no way to create an adjustment layer for a channel. Drag in the black point and white point slid- ers to turn the preview nearly black and white, as illustrated in Figure 8.20. A small transition area of gray is actually beneficial. Figure 8.20 Use the sliders in the Levels dialog box to turn this channel into black and white. 4. To fine-tune the selection, you’ll most likely need to use the Brush tool and paint some areas with black and some areas with white. 5. Once you have a black-and-white preview created (which is actually a mask), click the Load Channel as Selection icon at the bottom of the Channels panel. This creates a selection based on the mask you just created. The white areas are selected. 6. You can invert the selection (by choosing Select > Inverse on the main menu) if you find that you have selected the opposite part of the image. 7. After going through all this to make a selection, it’s a good idea to save the selection by choosing Select > Save and naming it (see Figure 8.21). That way, you can refer to it in the future. Figure 8.21 After making a time-consuming selection, it’s a good idea to save the selection. 607343c08.indd 328 4/11/10 11:06:57 PM 329 ■ COMBI NI NG EL EM ENT S FROM M ULTI PLE PICT UR ES For Photoshop Elements Users: Extracting an Object from Its Background Although Photoshop CS5 does not have an Extraction filter, Elements has the Magic Extractor. To use it, follow these steps: 1. Open an image with an object you want to separate from the rest of the image. 2. Choose Image > Magic Extractor to bring up the Magic Extractor, shown here: 3. Using the Foreground Brush tool paint dots or lines over parts of the image you wish to extract. Zoom in and move around using the Zoom and Hand buttons, and adjust Brush Size under tool Options to make finer selections. Use the Pointer Erase tool to remove any bad points. 4. Repeat the process with the Background Brush tool. 5. Click Preview to see the result. 6. Use the Smoothing Brush Add to Selection tool and Remove from Selection tool to adjust the edge of your selection. 7. Set the options under Touch Up, such as Feather, to do any final cleanup of your extracted object. 8. Click OK to close the Magic Extractor. Note: For more information on making selections, see Photoshop Masking & Compositing by Katrin Eismann (New Riders, 2004). 2. Make a copy of the channel offering the most contrast—in this case, the Blue channel—by dragging that channel layer to the New Channel icon at the bottom of the Channels panel. 3. Maximize the contrast between the area you want to select and the rest of the image by choosing Image > Adjustments > Levels. This is one of the few times you make changes directly on the pixels because there is no way to create an adjustment layer for a channel. Drag in the black point and white point slid- ers to turn the preview nearly black and white, as illustrated in Figure 8.20. A small transition area of gray is actually beneficial. Figure 8.20 Use the sliders in the Levels dialog box to turn this channel into black and white. 4. To fine-tune the selection, you’ll most likely need to use the Brush tool and paint some areas with black and some areas with white. 5. Once you have a black-and-white preview created (which is actually a mask), click the Load Channel as Selection icon at the bottom of the Channels panel. This creates a selection based on the mask you just created. The white areas are selected. 6. You can invert the selection (by choosing Select > Inverse on the main menu) if you find that you have selected the opposite part of the image. 7. After going through all this to make a selection, it’s a good idea to save the selection by choosing Select > Save and naming it (see Figure 8.21). That way, you can refer to it in the future. Figure 8.21 After making a time-consuming selection, it’s a good idea to save the selection. 607343c08.indd 329 4/11/10 11:06:58 PM 330 c ha p te r 8: COM POS IT ES ■ For Photoshop Elements Users: Creating a Selection within a Channel Although Elements does not have a Channels panel, we can fake this selection method by con- verting our image to black and white. 1. Duplicate the layer you wish to select in by selecting it and choosing Layer > Duplicate Layer. 2. Select Enhance > Convert to Black and White on the duplicate layer. 3. Experiment with different combinations of the Red, Green, and Blue channels (such as a value of 100 for Red and 0 for Green and Blue to let you just see the Red channel). The sidebar “For Elements Users: Matching Exposures” earlier in this chapter shows what selecting just the Red channel looks like. 4. Click OK. 5. Select Enhance > Adjust Lighting > Levels, and follow Steps 3 and 4 from the Photoshop instructions. 6. Use your favorite selection technique, such as the Magic Wand or Quick Selection tool, to select the part of the image you wish to be selected. 7. From the menu bar, choose Select > Save Selection and save this selection. 8. Delete the duplicate layer. 9. In the original layer, choose Select > Load Selection from the menu bar, and load the selection from Step 7. 10. Click on the layer mask and choose Edit > Paste from the menu bar. If you plan to use your selection in a layer mask, replace Steps 7–9 as follows: 7. Choose Select > All from the menu bar. 8. Choose Edit > Copy. 9. Delete the duplicate layer. Compositing the Elements Perhaps you have several images, each containing elements that you would like to combine into a single image. Often, the relative sizes of the various elements need to be modified—you can take care of that during the process of compositing the ele- ments. In the next example, we’ll create a composite of some birds, a background, and a moon: 1. Open your destination photo (the photo that you are going to use as the main photo), set its resolution to 300 dpi (or your preferred printing resolution) by choosing Image > Image Size, and uncheck the Resample Image option. You don’t want to interpolate the file now; just set it to the same resolution. See Fig- ure 8.22 for our destination photo. For Photoshop Elements Users: Creating a Selection within a Channel Although Elements does not have a Channels panel, we can fake this selection method by con - verting our image to black and white. 1. Duplicate the layer you wish to select in by selecting it and choosing Layer > Duplicate Layer. 2. Select Enhance > Convert to Black and White on the duplicate layer. 3. Experiment with different combinations of the Red, Green, and Blue channels (such as a value of 100 for Red and 0 for Green and Blue to let you just see the Red channel). The sidebar “For Elements Users: Matching Exposures” earlier in this chapter shows what selecting just the Red channel looks like. 4. Click OK. 5. Select Enhance > Adjust Lighting > Levels, and follow Steps 3 and 4 from the Photoshop instructions. 6. Use your favorite selection technique, such as the Magic Wand or Quick Selection tool, to select the part of the image you wish to be selected. 7. From the menu bar, choose Select > Save Selection and save this selection. 8. Delete the duplicate layer. 9. In the original layer, choose Select > Load Selection from the menu bar, and load the selection from Step 7. 10. Click on the layer mask and choose Edit > Paste from the menu bar. If you plan to use your selection in a layer mask, replace Steps 7–9 as follows: 7. Choose Select > All from the menu bar. 8. Choose Edit > Copy. 9. Delete the duplicate layer. 607343c08.indd 330 4/11/10 11:06:58 PM . COMBI NI NG EL EM ENT S FROM M ULTI PLE PICT UR ES For Photoshop Elements Users: Extracting an Object from Its Background Although Photoshop CS5 does not have an Extraction filter, Elements has. layer mask and choose Edit > Paste from the menu bar. If you plan to use your selection in a layer mask, replace Steps 7–9 as follows: 7. Choose Select > All from the menu bar. 8. Choose Edit. mask and choose Edit > Paste from the menu bar. If you plan to use your selection in a layer mask, replace Steps 7–9 as follows: 7. Choose Select > All from the menu bar. 8. Choose Edit