Expert: Huma Riaz - 10/25/2004

Question
I am relatively new to Photoshop (7). I can do simple things (like adjusting colors, and cropping etc...), but was wanting to cut out some images of people from pictures and combine them into a montage, some with soft edges. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Answer
It's Easy!

Take any picture you may want for cut-out.

1. Type (Q) from keyboard (this will take you to the quick mask mode)
2. Now pick a brush, make sure your color palette has only default (Solid Black/White) colors. Black is to choose the selected area, while White is for removing. You can choose the brush size/softness as you want. i.e. if you want sharp edges you can select the sharp edge brush.

3. Select the areas you may want them to be cut-out from the picture. (Don't worry about the RED color appearing on canvas it is to help you to differentiate the selection).

4. Now you are finished with selecting the area, type (Q) from the keyboard again. You will see a selection of what you have made. If it's inverse of what you need Type (Ctrl+Alt+I) from Keyboard or go into 'select' from window menu and find 'Inverse Selection' option

5. Copy and Paste the object from here to your required file (pick a new file as master and paste the objects one by one there to make a montage)

6. Do the above process for each picture you want.


If you face any problem, you may consult me without hesitation,



Huma Riaz
Location: Karachi-Pakistan