How to Blend Two Photos Together in Digital Scrapbooking
Digital imaging software makes it easy blend scrapbook photos together so that one image fades into another. The results are dreamy and ethereal. Any photos can be combined: a portrait with a landscape; or perhaps a pattern with an interior. Use your blended photos as scrapbook pages, or as digital papers to decorate with more photos, embellishments and text. As with anything digital, there are many ways to accomplish the same thing. One easy way to blend photos is to use Photoshop's "Layer Masks" and "Gradient" tools.
Instructions
Instructions
1. Start with two high-resolution digital photos at 300 dots per inch, or DPI. It's best if your photos are the same size. If you plan to use the blended photos as a background paper, your images should be the size of a scrapbook page--12 inches by 12 inches.
2. Open the photo you want to use as the background image in Photoshop. Then open the photo you want to blend into the background photo. You'll now have two open files.
3. Select the "Move" tool from the tool box and click on the "top layer" photo. Use the move tool to drag this photo into the background photo. Use the move tool again to center the top layer over the background layer. In the "Layers" palette, the top layer will be named "Layer 1" and background layer, "Background." If you can't see the "Layers" palette, click on "Window" then "Layers."
4. Close the file containing just the "top layer" photo. Then click on "File" and "Save As" to save the file with both photos as a Photoshop document (PSD).
5. Click on "Layer 1" in the "Layers" palette. Then click on the "Layer Mask" thumbnail at the bottom of the "Layers" palette--it's a rectangle with a circle in the center.
6. Select the "Gradient" tool from the tool box. At the top of the page, you'll see the options available for this tool. Select a black and white gradient from the drop-down "Gradient Picker" menu. Then select the "Linear Gradient" option--the small rectangle that looks just like the "Gradient" tool.
7. Place your cursor at one edge of the photo and drag it to the opposite edge. Now you'll see the top photo blended into the bottom photo, fading from dark to light.
8. If you're happy with this effect, go to the next step. If you feel like experimenting further, undo the "Gradient" you just made by clicking on "Edit" then "Undo Gradient." Now try dragging the "Gradient" tool from different sides: left to right, top to bottom, or across diagonally. If you want to make a perfectly straight "Gradient," hold down the "Shift" key while dragging the tool. Otherwise, just drag the tool freehand.
9. Click on "Layers" and select "Flatten Image." This will merge the two photos into one. Save your combined image by clicking "Save As" and saving it as a JPEG. Now you have your blended photo, but you can always go back to the layered PSD if you want to make changes.
Related posts
A flier made with Adobe Photoshop.A one-page flier can be a quick runoff, or it can be designed to look professional. Using Photoshop, you can do either. The better-looking the flier is, the more...
Photoshop, the graphics software available as part of the Adobe Creative Suite, offers a collection of tools, palettes, paints and filters to make the tiniest tweaks or wide sweeping changes to yo...
How to Blend Paint Patches on a CarCar repair can cost a lot of money, and it's always tempting to save by doing work at home, especially when it comes to body work. Repainting your car is not cha...
It's easy to put a different face on a picture.Replacing faces on pictures can serve several purposes, but no matter the reason, the process is still the same--cutting one image and pasting anothe...
How to Correct Glare on Eyeglasses in Photoshop CSProper photography requires that a scene be sufficiently lit. Commonly, lighting is added to a scene through the use of an on-camera flash. Unfort...
