Simple Photoshop Tutorial on Blending Images

This tutorial will be a very beginner's introduction to blending using Photoshop CS.

First, open up your image by going to the upper left-hand corner. Go to File>Open.

Next, select your second image to be blended with in the same manner.

What you can do now is either open up a brand new image to paste both blended images or simply use one of the two images as background.

To create a new image go to File>New and enter the width and height. You can leave the other information as it is already entered.

Now, use the rectangular marquee tool found on the upper right hand corner of the tools box (it's a dashed square) and with the right click on your mouse pressed down, highlight the area you want to use to blend. Make sure you give this area a lot of cushion space, you will select a more precise area later.

As you release the right click of the mouse an area should be highlighted by the moving dashes around it. On your keyboard press ctrl and x at the same time. This will cut out the area you selected.

Go to your new image (which should be white by default) and press ctrl and v on your keyboard. This should paste the image you selected. To move this newly pasted image go to the tools bar and selected the tool right beside the marquee tool, the move tool. It has a triangle with a tiny compass on it. This tool is used for moving objects around. Place it on the new image wherever you'd like it to be.

Next, repeat this process with your second image. It is wise to place on with a side overlapping the other since they will be blended out.

Now, use the lasso tool by going to the tool bar and selecting the tool that looks like a lasso and make sure that "anti-aliased" up on top is checked. This assures a smooth selection. Now, select only the portions of the image that you want to remove.

Next, with this area selected go to the top and click on Selection>Inverse. This will invert your selection to what you want to keep. Then go to Select>Feather. You will now be asked to enter a number. For most projects the rule of thumb is, the more you highlighted area, the higher you want that number to be because it determines the transparency of the amount you will delete. The default is usually 5 pixels but if your area is large this will look very sloppy. Feel free to go up to 15 and experiment, every image calls for a different procedure. Now that it is feathered, go back to Selection and click on Inverse. Now the original area you selected should be highlight. Now on your keyboard press the "delete" key. This area should now be gone and the image should be "blended" with the image below it.