What's new
By:
Filters
Photoshop Gurus Forum

Welcome to Photoshop Gurus forum. Register a free account today to become a member! It's completely free. Once signed in, you'll enjoy an ad-free experience and be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

How to Insert a pic cut-out so's it looks part 'hidden' ?


A

abrogard

Member
Messages
13
Likes
5
What I mean is I have a picture of a leafy shrub and I want to put like an 'Alice In Wonderland' little door in it. That door should be part masked by the leaves of the tree.

I'm totally new at Photoshop and I've only managed to get myself to where I can cut out the door from another pic and paste it onto the leafy shrub pic. It is inevitably totally in the foreground there. Not what I want. And I can't see how to readily fix it.

Can someone help, please?

:)
 
It sounds easy enough for a project. If you're just starting could be a little complicated. Do you have an image so we can see what you're doing or how about the PSD file can you compress that and upload it
 
As iDad stated this could get complicated. This is ONE way to accomplish this effect.

Open you Shrub and door image. Place the door image layer above the shrub image layer. Select/highlight the door image layer. Go to LAYER > LAYER MASK > HIDE ALL.

Next, hit the D key to set your fore and background colors to black and white default. Then select the BRUSH TOOL and use a soft brush brush set to the color white, to carefully remove the the unwanted leaves in front of the door. If you take too much with the brush, hit the X key to to change your foreground color to black and then paint the mistake back in. Hit the X key to go back to white.

bushdooor.jpg

Screen Shot 2013-04-13 at 8.50.53 AM.png
 
Last edited:
Another way would be to put the door layer behind (below) the leaf layer (to do this double click the leaf layer in the layers pallet which will allow you to unlock it - the base layer is always locked - and then drag the leaf layer above the door layer) and then reduce the opacity of the leaf layer a bit (so you can see the door)(make sure the leaf layer is selected/highlighted when you do this), and then using the eraser tool remove the leaves you want gone. Once this is done increase the opacity of the leaf layer back to 100% again and if nec clean up the edges of the leaves.

One of the nice things about PS is that there are often a number of different ways to accomplish the same result. You now have 2 of them in your process tool box.

One other suggestion,,,,,when erasing the leaves take your finger off the left mouse on a regular basis so that if you take too much of a leaf away you can use the history pane to step back a bit. If you keep your left mouse down for an extended period of time while erasing and need to step back you will likely wind up having to re-do a lot of erasing that was fine up until the point of the error.

a - door & bush.jpg
 
Last edited:
OK then. I'll add one. This is very similar to Sam's method and uses a mask and the door layer in same position, above the background layer. Turn of the door layer for now.

Select the leaves that will appear in front of the door and leave that selection active. Then turn on the door layer.

Add to the selection so the the entire door is selected. Go ahead and make a rough lasso selection; it only needs to include the whole door. Go to select>save selection and name it.

Now be sure you have the door layer selected, go to select>load selection, use the down arrow to choose your saved selection, then add a mask to the layer and invert it (ctl/cmd + I).

If there is any cleanup required, you can choose an appropriately sized brush and work on the mask to conceal or reveal the door or leaves. Be sure that the double outline is around the mask so that you don't start to paint with black or white directly on the layer!

So,that's method number 3! My philosophy is never let anyone tell you what is best (except when it comes to using a pen tool or not using an eraser, lol). Use what you understand and what works best for you at the moment. Later, as your shop skills improve, you will want to try other methods, challenge yourself and add some some hooks to your pegboard!

EDIT SOME WEIRD ADVICE:
OK, I have used save selection in a few cases - it has its purpose - but I am wrong in this case and am adding an extra 2 steps by using it here. All you have to do is make the selections on each layer, then mask the door layer. Sorry for the confusion if that added any. But using save selection can be a nice option to have sometimes.
 
Last edited:
All I can say at this stage is a real big 'Thank You' - there's so much information there it's going to take me a while to come to grips with it, absorb it, put it into action.

I'm totally sure you've all answered my question. That first pic alone shows exactly what I'm trying to achieve.

Thanks again.

:)
 
Glad to be able to help,,,,and I have learnt a few things here too so thanks for your question.
 

Back
Top