Learning  Photoshop

How  to  insert  yourself  into  another  photo  

Photoshop is a program that can be used to edit photos in many different

ways. is tutorial describes one of the many things that can be done using this amazing

tool: putting yourself into another photo. I try to be as descriptive as possible in each step but Photoshop is a

complicated tool with many parts. Any previous knowledge of photography and photoshop would help. For this

tutorial I will be using Photoshop Creative Suite 6. Another version may be used, however the steps may differ

slightly from what follows.

e "rst thing you will need to do is to select the photo you will be using to superimpose your-

self into. You can take a picture or you can just "nd one online. For this tutorial I am going to

use this awesome promo image from Breaking Bad. I will be inserting myself behind Walt in

place of Jesse.

1

Next, you will need to take a photo of yourself to use in the picture. e important thing to re-

member in this step is to make sure the lighting matches as closely as possible to whats in the

photo. As you can see, the light source in the Breaking Bad photo seems to mostly be coming

from the left side.

When I took the picture of myself I made

sure to put the light source on the left. (It

looks a little creepy but I was trying to

match my expression to the mood in the

photo)

Once you have selected/taken the photos it’s time to import them into photoshop. As with any-

thing in Photoshop it is important to use non-destructive editing and to keep everything in

separate layers. is allows you to always revert back to a previous version if you make a mis-

take or change you mind on how something should look. Make sure to import the base photo

"rst and then add the photo of yourself into it. is is so the "nal product will be the same size

as the base photo and not the picture of you.

2

3

To begin the editing process you will need to determine which part of the base photo will be in

the foreground of your "nal picture. Once the foreground has been established you will use the

pen tool to cut it out and create a new layer. is tool is found on the toolbar on the left about

halfway down. is tool is easier to use if you are zoomed in. Once you have "nished selecting

the area, select (in the menu) Layer > New > Layer via Copy. A new layer will be created from

your selection.

In this case, the portrait of Walt is

the foreground because I will be

putting myself behind him. As you

can see I also cut out Jesse’s shirt

because I will be blending my head

into his neck and shoulders. (For

instructional purposes, I made

only the new layer visible. I did

not delete the rest of the photo.)

Now that the foreground has been cut out, you will need cut out your head from the portrait of

yourself to use in the picture. Use the pen tool again but rather than making a new layer, select

the Make > Mask option in the Pen toolbar at the top.

For my example I only cut out the left

side because the right side will be cov-

ered up by Walt in the foreground.

4

5

is is where you actually begin to put it all together. Make sure that all of the layers are visible

by checking the “eye” symbol on each layer listed in the toolbar located on the left side of the

window. Make sure that the layer with your head is in between the base photo and the fore-

ground layer you created in step 4. Select your “head” layer and use the scale and move func-

tions found in the menu under Edit > Transform to situate your portrait. Make adjustments

until you are happy with how it’s positioned.

Once everything is in position you will notice that it still looks out of place. You will need to

make color adjustments so that the two photos blend together. Most of the time the adjust-

ments will be fairly minor but in this example the base photo has yellow colorizing so there is a

little bit more involved.

To change the color, select the Hue/Saturation button to

add an adjustment layer. For my example I will select “col-

orize” in the pop out menu and move the “Hue” and

“Saturation” sliders until the shade matches the picture as

close as possible.

6

7

Once the Hue was correct I had to

move the Saturation slider almost

all the way to the right because of

how yellow the photo is. Just play

with the adjustments until it looks

pretty close.

After the color is right you will still see that shadows and contrast don’t quite match. at is

your next step. Similar to step 7, you will be adding more adjustment layers to tweak the look of

your photo until they match up.

Select the Exposure button to add another adjustment

layer to change the exposure of your photo. Make sure

that the layer with your head on it is selected when doing

this. Move the sliders until you are happy with the look.

Next, add another adjustment layer. is time, for

Brightness/Contrast. Again, play around with the sliders

until you get your desired look.

8

With my example I used very slight

adjustments with the Brightness and

Exposure but I found that I needed a

very large increase in contrast to get

the desired look.

We’re almost done. You will notice in my example that my neck isn’t blended very well. Blending

is important to make the picture look at least somewhat believable. e "rst step to blending is

to create a mask so that we can erase part of the layer.

Follow the path shown, Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All. is will

create a mask over the layer and will be displayed in the layer section

of the toolbar on the right.

9

Once the mask has been created we can blend the neck together. is is the most important step

to make your photo look as realistic as possible. To begin blending, make sure the mask you just

created is highlighted and select the brush tool (located about one third of the way down on the

left side toolbar)

When blending, use a large brush with very low hardness

to most effectively fade the two pictures together. To do

this, click the size selector on the brush toolbar at the top

of the window. Select a fairly large size (as shown) and

move the hardness all the way down. (I #nd this is a good

starting point, however you might want to change these

settings to your liking depending on your photo)

Once the correct brush size is selected you can begin brushing the neck away. e graphic below will be shown in

the upper right corner while brushing. Black is erasing and white is adding. If you erase too much you can move

the slider back to the white to add it back in. Continue adding and erasing until it looks good.

10

Here is the #nal product:

Now  you  know  how  to  put  yourself  into  another  photo  using  Photoshop.  Impress  you  friends!  Put  your  

friends  faces  in  other  photos!  The  possibilities  are  endless.    There  are  many  applications  to  Photoshop  

and  I  have  only  shown  you  one  of  them.  

Use  Photoshop  to  edit  photos  more  effectively  and  efficiently  for  work  or  for  just  plain  entertainment.  

There  are  thousands  of  Photoshop  tutorials  online  to  help  you  continue  learning  how  to  use  this  versa-­‐

tile  tool.