b&w and creating layered images

[lakewud]

Ok, so the responce rate on this forum is awful, fingers crossed some bright spark will help me out one this one.

I have a family group shot. I want to blur maybe even b&w the background obviously leaving the group in colour and focus. Any thoughts please?

The other thing is, took two photos at the same time, on one a couple of heads are looking down, i would like to cut n paste their heads onto the better photograph.

Now, i have done this, and even printed the pic out, and to be fair, it kinda works....but the way im doing it is opening both images, cutting and pasting..so in effect im losing a little quality on the heads im cutting out and pasting back into my first image...SO, a better way perhaps?..layers? masks?

In laymans terms please.

[Bobm03]

Ok, so the responce rate on this forum is awful, fingers crossed some bright spark will help me out one this one.

I have a family group shot. I want to blur maybe even b&w the background obviously leaving the group in colour and focus. Any thoughts please?

The other thing is, took two photos at the same time, on one a couple of heads are looking down, i would like to cut n paste their heads onto the better photograph.

Now, i have done this, and even printed the pic out, and to be fair, it kinda works....but the way im doing it is opening both images, cutting and pasting..so in effect im losing a little quality on the heads im cutting out and pasting back into my first image...SO, a better way perhaps?..layers? masks?

In laymans terms please.

The success of this kind of exercise depends on how well the original photos compare to each other in terms of resolution (5 meg images work better than 3 meg images), exposure and focus.

If they are virtually or exactly the same, we then go to how the heads differ, the size of the object being copied and how the object is pasted.

Using the "lasso" tool, you create an object somewhat larger than than the area you want to correct. For example, if you want to change a frown on imageA into a smile from imageB, lasso an area that encompasses the chin to the eyes with the dimples from the smiling face included.

When pasting this object into image A, you may want to make an adjustment to the object's properties, especially the soft edge.

And, yes, if you exercise patience, you can blur or make the background black-and-white.

I take a lot of rugby team photos. I usually take three or four photos and copy and paste the best heads, as described above, to make the one image that is better than the rest.

Just for the heck of it, here is an action souvenir photo from a 2006 game that's had a lot of miscellaneous "work" done to it. The original 2 meg image has been downsized for posting.


It takes just patience and a desire to enhance your skills. Hope this helps.

Bob