Before I start please note that this is one of my first attempts at creating a tutorial so some things might not make sense. But I will try to explain everything the best I can. This is a basic blend turtorial. I will show you how to take these three images:
and make this blend: click on image to view larger: . Please click each of the above images and save them so you can use them.
First thing you need to do is open a new photoshop document (I am assuming you are familiar with the basics in photoshop). Make sure the image size is 1024 x 768 and the background color is white.
Take the first picture and using the rectangular marquee crop it like you see here. I did this because I do not want any of the text to appear in the blend.
Next I copy and paste the cropped image to my document: (click on image to view larger): This image will become layer 1.
I do the same for the second image: (click on image to view larger): This image will become layer 2.
Now that I have two images on my document (layer 1 and layer 2) I use the move tool to move the images to a desired position. I moved layer 2 to the left and layer 1 to the right.
: (click on image to view larger):
Then I use the rectangular marquee to crop the top and bottom of the images so they line up: (click on image to view larger):
Now it's time to copy and paste the 3rd image onto the document. This image will become layer 3. Use the move tool to move this image to a desired spot. I chose to put it in the middle of the other two images.
(click on image to view larger):
I will then add a mask to the 3rd layer, since it is ontop of the other two layers. (click on image to view larger):
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Now with the masked layer clicked I use the eraser tool (use your own desired brush size) and begin erasing or better, masking the unwanted part of the image. This inturn blends the top layer with the layer underneath. .
For a more clean mask you can use either the lasso tool or the polygonal tool.
The great thing about masking is say you do make a major boo boo, you can always just switch the foreground and background colors and using the eraser tool {still} you can correct your mistakes. Because in all actuality you aren't erasing the original image it's still intact. You basically just have to undo the mask.:
(click on image to view larger): .
To learn more about masking I will send you to a tutorial that the very conceptually talented Vyra explained on her site Tangled Synthesis. No one has been able to explain masking better than she has. This is where I learned about it: Masks Masks Masks.
Now that you have masked the images so that the bottom layers show through it's time to link your images together.: (click on image to view larger):
Now merge the linked images together. It may ask whether you want to apply the masks before merging. If it does click yes.
(click on image to view larger):
Once you do this you will need to flatten the entire image so the creation is now your background layer: (click on image to view larger):
and it should look something like this: (click on image to view larger):
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