Blending Basics in Paint Shop Pro 9 or X

There are several types of photo or image manipulation, and one of the most popular is blending. This technique combines a number of images or photos together seamlessly. These instructions cover the basics of blending in Paint Shop Pro 9 or X. For this tutorial, I'm only going to use the idea of two images, as the general steps are applicable to as many images as you want to blend together.

Open Paint Shop Pro, and then open the images you wish to blend. If they are different sizes, note the height of the taller one. Add the widths of the images together, and then open a new image at the same resolution as your images with a raster background, with the height the same as your tallest image and the width the same as the added widths of the images. The width is not as important if you plan to blend them closely together. Your main consideration is having enough room to work with.

Decide which image will be the bottom, click on it to make it active, and then go to Edit and click on Copy. Click on the new image, and then click on Edit again and go to Paste, then click on Paste as New Layer. Follow the same steps for the second image, so that you have a total of 3 layers on the new image - the background, the first image, and the second image.

If necessary, use the Move Tool to adjust the locations of the images to your liking. Lowering the opacity on the image layers by sliding the bar next to each in the Layer Palette to the right makes this easier. Once you're satisfied with their locations, it's time to start blending them together.

Set the bottom layer to full opacity and the top layer to an opacity level where you can see both layers. Click on the Eraser Tool, make sure the top layer is active, and begin to carefully remove parts of the top layer so that it merges with the bottom layer naturally. It's a good idea to raise the opacity back to 100% percent occasionally to make sure you haven't erased something important. When you're satisfied with the appearance, switch to the bottom layer and erase any elements from it to help blend into the top layer, and the background layer as well if you choose. Pay special attention to the backgrounds of the images to make sure they combine well.

Switch the opacity levels on both images to 100% and look at what you have done. Go back and erase anything you might have left out. Once you're satisfied with the effect, click on Layer, go down to Merge, and click on Merge All (Flatten). Save your blended image.

With these basic steps you can create simple blended images and move on to more complicated collages. These instructions are compatible with Paint Shop Pro 9, X, and earlier versions. Imagine the effects you can achieve with this technique!