Adobe Community: Message List - Overlay a photo on another?

Re: Overlay a photo on another?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 22:45:47 GMT

Your latest comment caused me to look more closely. There were no marching ants along the bottom of my grouping. Though I had some problems defining what the selection tool was to select, I have now accomplished my simple goal and I very much appreciate your help!

Re: Overlay a photo on another?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 22:22:32 GMT

Are you sure you are making a complete selection? When you make a complete selection of the group and release your mouse you should see the selection outline change to marching ants to indicate the selected area. That’s when you press ctrl+J to create the new layer.

Re: Overlay a photo on another?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 22:16:12 GMT

I did use the selection tool to outline a group of people. Nevertheless, the group profile comes up with a checkerboard and the part I do not want does not. In your example the climber was selected but it was the background around him that was checkered...

Re: Overlay a photo on another?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 21:41:10 GMT

You must first use the quick selection tool to outline your object.

Re: Overlay a photo on another?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 21:32:41 GMT

When I select my image and press Ctrl-J, I get my image outlined with a checkerboard rather than the part I want to omit which stays white. How do I achieve what you did in your example. I.e.: Everything around the climber is checker board. I have tried this over and over, always with the same result.

Again, thanks for your patience and your help.

Re: Overlay a photo on another?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 19:52:45 GMT

You can make a slelection and press Ctrl+J to get a new layer with transparency then use a solid color background or another image background.

See my detailed instructions here:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/4166187#4166187

Re: Overlay a photo on another?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 19:47:06 GMT

Thanks for your help!

I guess that was not my only "problem". I followed your instructions and now have the image over the background. However, I had used one of the available tools to "remove" unwanted elements leaving just the subjects. The area that used to have unwanted elements is white and it was my understanding that the unwanted section would become transparent when placed over the background. This is not the case.

I now have the entire modified image sitting on the background. As usual. I am not sure what do do next.

Re: Overlay a photo on another?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:51:28 GMT

Select both images using Ctrl+Click (Cmd+click on Mac) then click Open

Both images will appear in the photo bin.

If the background appears first in the editor window double click on the subject image in the photo bin.

Then press Ctrl+A to selct all followed by Ctrl+C to copy

Then double click on the background thumbnail in the photo bin and press Ctrl+V to paste.

Select the move tool from the top of the tool pallet to reposition and scale/resize.

Overlay a photo on another?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:34:35 GMT

Though I have had this program for several months, it seems that I cannot make much progress. I have two images. I wish to use one as a background and overlay the other. I have spent two days trying to accomplish this to no avail. I am sure it is very simple but as I have said before, Photoshop Elements is the least intuitive program I have ever encountered.