TRANSFORM- ctrl +T This is the tool you will use to change the size of your images. Rembmer to hold shift while stretching to maintain proportions
DESELECT- Ctrl + d If you have something selected and you see the marching ants, this will deselect them
ZOOM- z To quickly access the zoom tool, very useful for doing detail work
Alt + Quick Mask icon(looks like a round square logo) This will cover your image with a black quick mask. You can then use a white paintbrush(B) to reveal any areas that you wish.
Making Selections:
1. Use the quick selection tool(W) to select your subject from the background 2. Click on the Refine Edge Button 3. Bring the Feather slider up to 2 or 3 4. Choose one of the VIEWS to see how your selection is looking(overlay works quite well) Using Adjustment Layers
Very useful for making corrections and adding effects to your layers
IMPORTANT :Click on the small icon at the bottom left of the adjustment layer panel to make sure the adjustment only affects the one layer. If you don't click this, ALL the layers will be affected by the adjustment.
Using Layers
Every time you want to add something to your composite make sure it is on a new layer
Use opacity and Blending Modes to get a mix between your layers
drag and drop your layers to get them to go on top or behind each other.
BLURS, LIGHTING & SHADOWS
Creating added blur with the Blur Tool and Tilt Shift
1. When you are on the Human Subject layer select the blur tool (looks like a drop of water) 2. Increase the strength to 100 and paint repeatedly over the subject until the parts you want to blur become blurry 3. To add increased blur to the depth of field in your background image choose Filter > Blur > Tilt Shift
Making Shadows:
1. With your human subject layer selected, double click the layer to bring up Layer Styles 2. Click on the drop shadow option 3. You can now change the direction, opacity and distance of the shadow in relation to your subject
Making Shadows(alternate)
1. Make a selection of your human subject(doesn’t have to be perfect) 2. Shift + Ctrl + Delete to fill it with black 3. Now you can copy paste this onto your background and use as a more specific shadow 4. You can lower the opacity to make it less intense by click on the opacity slider in the layers panel 5. You can warp it by choosing Edit > Transform > Warp 6. You can blur it by applying a blur Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur
Adding Light Effects and Lens flare
1. Choose the paintbrush (B) and lower the flow down to 20% and set hardness to zero 2. Use the eyedropper tool(I) to pick out the colour of the light you want to enhance 3. Create a NEW LAYER 4. Paint with the new colour overtop of the area that needs enhancing 5. If its too intense you can still make it even more subtle by dropping the opacity slider 6. If you want a lens flare make a new layer, fill it with black (Shift +Ctrl + delete) and set the blending mode to Screen 7. Select Filter > Render > Lens Flare 8. To change the colour of the lens flare choose Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and change the sliders here until the colour looks right