Sometimes even the accidental combination of two images in a graphic editor, one of which, for example, is translucent, can lead to such unexpected results that even the most incredible figment of a rich imagination will seem like a naive childhood fantasy. If you combine the images meaningfully, you can create a lot of interesting, beautiful, funny or just useful things, for example, replace the background in the photo, insert a new object or character, combine what is incompatible in nature, create a colorful photo montage or a fantastic collage, above someone joke, fake something or fake somewhere and much, much more.
Why Photoshop?
All this "bunch" of attractive features can be implemented to one degree or another in many graphic editors, but the Photoshop program seems to be the simplest, fastest and most effective, which, having a huge arsenal of tools for all kinds of manipulations with images, including deep transformations of their quality parameters , will realize any whim of creative imagination. That is why we will talk about how to insert a picture into a picture in Photoshop.
There are many programs, including online services, in which you can create a collage or make a photo montage of quite acceptable quality in a couple of minutes and a few clicks. However, despite the captivating simplicity, efficiency and sometimes not very limited opportunities for creativity, these are still “consumer goods”, but the possibilities of Photoshop in this sense are not limited. Of course, it can be difficult to interrupt the flight of creative thought, but sooner or later you will have to “land”, because before you start creating any photo manipulation, it is desirable to have a clear idea of how the future picture will or should look if it is not just a photograph, inserted into the frame in another image.
Depending on the quality characteristics and plot images of the source images, as well as the ultimate goal of the creative work, overlaying pictures in Photoshop can be done in various ways and means, but all of them in most cases include cropping images, selecting and cutting fragments, scaling, transforming and general correction. The technical part of creating a conventional photo montage in the program, provided the components are prepared in advance, does not cause any difficulties even for novice users who are barely familiar with its interface.
Ways to Insert Images
Inserting a picture in "Photoshop" is much simpler than sticking "live" photos onto the basis of the composition of the future photo montage. To do this, you can use the "Place" command in the "File" menu or, if the picture is already loaded into the program, transfer it from the native window to the target window of the composition basis. They do this as follows: by turning on the "Move" tool (the topmost on the toolbar), the image is captured with the left mouse button and dragged up to the file name of the target window, opening it in this way. Then, lowering the object into a new window, the button is released, and the picture is inserted, "in a businesslike way", located on a new layer. You can, of course, use the traditional, pedantic method by selecting (Ctrl + A) and copying (Ctrl + C) the image, and then pasting it (Ctrl + C) in a new window.
Often the question arises of how to insert a picture into a picture in Photoshop with the possibility of choosing from a large number of images for comparison when creating various combinations. If there are many images, you can go to the "Window" menu and, clicking on the "Arrange" line, open all the windows at once, choosing one of the options for their location.
In this clear layout, you can simply drag and drop the objects of the photo montage from window to window or from all windows to the target window of the composition base.
Select and cut image fragments
All of the above methods indicate how to insert a picture into a picture in Photoshop, if we are only talking about simple photo manipulations performed using the photomontage technique, where images are used in their entirety, but for more complex combinations, such as collages, the image processing scheme is somewhat complicated by the need to select and cutting out objects, resizing, sometimes transforming and correcting. In addition, you need, of course, to be able to harmoniously fit objects into the background basis of the composition. When creating collages, specific objects or fragments of image components are often used, from which an artistic composition is created, so you need to have a good command of the methods of highlighting and cutting in Photoshop.
Pen tool
Depending on the nature of the object being cut, you can use any of the standard selection tools, but when you need special accuracy, of course, the Pen tool is indispensable. The contour of the object is circled, then, by right-clicking on it, select the "Create Selected Area" command and drag the selected fragment to the desired window.
You can transfer the entire image, then add a layer mask and, choosing black, erase the excess with a brush. In this case, the opacity of the upper layer is usually temporarily reduced in order to better control the accuracy of placement and the harmonious combination of the object with the background. The stiffness of the brush is set depending on the requirements for accuracy and the severity of the boundaries of the components of the collage.
"Quick mask"
To select objects, the Quick Mask tool is often used, which allows you to literally draw (paint over) the selection area in translucent red, which, in fact, is a black and white image. Where the mask is red, nothing is highlighted, and the transparent areas correspond to the full selection.
Thus, drawing on the mask in black extends the selection area, and painting in white excludes areas from the selection. Partial selection can be obtained by drawing a mask with various shades of gray or changing the opacity of the brush. Clicking the quick mask button on the toolbar again takes you to the standard editing mode, in which the mask disappears and a selection appears in the form of a drawn mask. Now it remains to delete the excess (Delete), and the cut fragment is at your disposal.
Image Combination
Possessing the most general principles of graphic editors, it’s easy to understand how to insert a picture into a picture in Photoshop, but in order to beautifully “fit” images to each other, you need to learn how to make invisible, smooth transitions between them and the background basis of compositions. They are provided by the degree of shading of the contours during the selection of fragments, as well as the opacity and stiffness of the brushes in the modes of quick and regular masks. In addition, you can use partial selection and gradient fills (from black to white or vice versa) on masks, allowing you to effectively dissolve the border between images.
The harmony of merging pictures in collages depends on the correct choice of layer blending modes. The most commonly used blending modes are Soft Light and Overlap combined with opacity, and in Brightness mode you can combine incompatible images using images with completely different colors.