Super Imposing

Super Imposing Super-Imposing ( putting yourself in a picture) Intro Have you ever wished that you had visited the Bahamas or climbed Mt. Everest but never had the time or money to do so? With today’s technology, it takes only a few clicks of the mouse and you could be riding that big roller coaster or running with the bulls. Your imagination is the limit. What you will need for this guide: two pictures and an editing program. For the purposes of this guide, the background picture will be known as Image 1; and the picture with element that is to be transposed will be known as Image 2. Equipment Needed , Picture editing software (Microsoft Paint, Adobe Photoshop) , Scanner or Digital Camera , Patience , , Two images: Image 1 Image 2 How To Microsoft Paint A very simple drawing program that comes bundled with windows, it is available to all PC users. 1. Opening the program Begin by clicking on the Start menu and then Programs. Next Figure A select Accessories and then highlight the paint button. Click the button to open the program. The default location of paint in windows is the same for all versions (see Figure A). 2. Editing Picture 1 Start by going to File in the top left hand corner and selecting Open. Go to the folder that contains your picture and select it. If it is highlighted, click Open. Now begin by selecting the free form lasso button on the tool bar, which is circled in yellow in the example picture (see Figure B). Also select the transparency background option, which is circled in green (see Figure B). With this selected, Figure B begin tracing the picture by clicking and holding the left mouse button down. Once you have returned to your starting point and let go. A blue dotted line will appear around the selected area. Next go to Edit Copy. This allows you to take the selected image and place it in the background image. 3. Combining both images Open the background image into paint. If it asks you to save the changes you have made to Image 1, click no. Now go to Edit and select Paste. Image 1 should now be on top of Image 2. If it tells you that the bitmap is not big enough and if you would like to resize it say no. Figure C WARNING!!!!! Do not click on Image 2 because you will deselect Image 1, in the process and you will not be able to move it around. Now drag image 1 to a suitable location. Before you deselect it, you may have to resize it to scale. To do this, click on any of the blue squares surrounding Image 1 and drag them to appropriate dimensions (see Figure C). Now save your image as something different than what your background picture was or you will lose the unedited background picture and will need to find it again if you need to start the process again. You have just successfully Super Imposed two images together (see Figure D). Paint Final Product Adobe Photoshop Photoshop is a professional version of paint. It has many more options to use but costs quite a bit more. 1. Finding Photoshop If Photoshop is on your computer, it should be found under programs, find the folder titled Adobe and select Photoshop from its list of options. Photoshop is on all of the teacher stations and on several computers in the high school media center. It will be found in the applications folder. 2. Editing Image 1 Begin by opening both images into Photoshop. With Photoshop, you can have both pictures open and edit them at the same time. To have proper proportions, go to Image and then Image Size. Change the size so it will look correct when you add it to Image 2. With Image selected, go to the lasso tool and click on it. If you do not have a steady hand you can right click the lasso tool and select the magnetic attribute, which will attach itself automatically as you trace around (see Figure D). Once you have lassoed Figure D Figure D Image 1, go to Edit and then select Copy (see Figure E). Now select Image 2 and click Edit Paste. Photoshop puts the copied section into its own layer, which you can then move around whenever you like (see Figure F). If the image is too large, go back and change it from the original. You may now move Image 1 to its desired position. Save it under a different file name, and choose .jpg under the file type if you want it to be compatible with other applications. If it warns you about quality loss, this is acceptable; it is barely noticeable most of the time. Figure E Figure F Photoshop final product Tips and Tricks , It is easier to cut an object out of a monotone background such as a blue screen rather than in front of a poster or other background with many colors and patterns. Photoshop’s magnetic lasso tool relies on elements similar in color to make its trace and it is much easier to manually cut. , If you are using a background that is dark, it will help the realism of the final product if the picture being edited in is under similar lighting conditions. , If using a person such as in this guide, have him/her close fingers when waving and keep body limbs either tight against the body or apart so holes are not created. This is more of a convenience. Created by C.J. Hall