In this tutorial, I’m going to share 5 tips that will help you combine photos to make composites and collages, so fast and easy. These new tools are so subtle, maybe you missed some of them.
I have included Video and written steps. Please watch the video first, as there are some gems in there, not included in the written steps.
Lets start with a 2 layered image
In the properties panel, click Remove Background (Make sure you are on a layer or you won’t see this)/.
Instantly the background is removed!
Its not perfect, but its usually a great start and you can refine the mask to make it perfect.
The other option is Select Subject. Which will make a selection. In this case we will do this because I like the model’s braid and I’m sure she does too.
Use it in Lasso mode for cleanup work.
Hold down Shift to add to the selection, make a rough selection around the braid and Object Select grabs it perfectly.
Hold down Alt/Option and make a selection in the gap between her head and arm. Alt/Option removes from selection.
Click the Mask button in the layers panel 
This isn’t new in 2020, but worth mentioning to get rid of the edge fringing (the fine black outline).
Click on the layer mask.
Choose Filter Blur>Gaussian Blur and enter 3
Press Cmd/Ctrl+L for levels.
Push the black and the gray triangles to the right and watch the outline vanish.
Before I show you the tip, let’s make a brush.
I opened an image of water splashes and made a selection around it using the rectangle marquee tool.
Choose Edit>Define Brush
Create a new layer
Choose white as the foreground color and press the B key to active the brush.
Click/tap once in your document to stamp the splash with the brush. (See the video for this in action step by step)
But now I want to do splashes on both sides. The means the brush needs to be rotated (and here comes the tip… )
Press the arrow keys on the bottom right of your keyboard to rotate the brush. Also hold down Shift to rotate it faster.
Stamp once 90 deg.
Rotate another 180 and stamp again. (I do a few more things in the video that are hard to show in written format).
Drag the layer underneath our model for a cool splashy effect.
When you are making composites, you usually end up with a bunch of windows open and lots of tabs in Photoshop. You need to close them all, except for the one you are working in, where everything is combined.
Right click in the tab and choose Close Others. All the windows close except the one you are working in.
To make things a little easier to see, I added a curves adjustment layer to the background and to the model How to use curves
See how quick and easy it is to make quick composites in Photoshop? I hope these little tips help you speed up your work. Buy the way, if you are making any composites, we would love to see them. Share them on our priviate Facebook page HERE
Great to see you here at the CAFE.
Colin
I enjoy making these for you. As time permits, I’ll keep making one each week. Drop a comment and let me know what you would love to learn in photoshop. Also don’t forget to check out my premium tutorials, it’s what supports this website and enables me to do what I do,
PS Don’t forget to join our mailing list and follow me on Social Media>
(Ive been posting some fun Instagram and Facebook Stories lately)
You can get my free Layer Blending modes ebook here
Stop struggling with selections. Learn how to select and cut out anything from people, hair, trees, complex shapes and even transparency.
Discover how to get perfect edges, without halos and jaggies. Colin shows you exactly how in 18 lessons.
All the images are included for you to follow along.
You will be able to select and cut out anything: faster and cleaner.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
How to create rock textures in Photoshop. It's surprising how you can create stunning photorealistic rock and stone texture so...
How to edit landscape photos in Photoshop, full workflow in this high quality, free Photoshop tutorial. Video and written steps...
New to Lightroom, curves inside masks for powerful tone and color grading...
Never understood why anyone would object to the new transform tool. It now works like I always thought it should. Rarely do I want to scale something that is not uniform.
Being able to rotate brushes was an “aha” moment for me. I have an old wacom Bamboo and don’t have one of the fancy pens that rotate. I know getting used to the new free transform take a little time, but to me, it should have been that way originally. I use it more for re-sizing than changing demensions