How do I cut a person out of one photo & add to another group photo?

I'm really frustrated by this program. I was a master at MS Digital Image 6, but that had to go with OS updates. This program just stifles what I am trying to do. I know it's a better program but I wish I had it back right now. At the moment I am trying to copy one person into a picture with another person, change the relative size, etc. My image just gets pasted into the first and I can't manipulate anyting. Is there video tutorials avaliable becuase I find these posts too customized to each issue.

love2hike,

I noticed that you are using version 6 of Photoshop Elements, so there is another alternative that you could try. Version 6 and later have an editor function called Photomerge Groupshot.

Now if you are successful with the process described in the earlier posts of this thread, that is fine and you do not need to use the Groupshot function. I mention it as an alternative for you because I found it effective on several of my family photos. Especially if the background of the two photos is similar, it might be easier to use the Groupshot function.

If you are interested you could start by checking the PSE Help for info on the Groupshot function.

Hi,

You need to select the girl from the original image, you can use quick selection tool as well. Then you can do Cmd + J to create  a new layer and duplicate it to another family image. There you can arrange this layer below the family layer. ( You will need to unlock the Background layer as it is locked) . Erasing the unwanted parts and alligning and resizing it using Transform > Free Transform will help.

Cheers,

Swarnima

In this example I added the lady standing in the back. I selected her and copied to the clipboard, then pasted onto the destination pic, creating Layer 1.  I lowered the opacity of Layer 1 until I could see all 3 ladies:

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=16Bj2WwhCL8mx3LC7WigfW00KSZu3h

Then I used the Eraser with hard brush size to erase enough to leave her in the background, and restored the Opacity to 100%:

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1aaMrx8vBQSYbErEvV4in7SeOR5fdN

Tip: when you select the subject you might want to feather 1 or 2 px so that the pasted subject looks more natural.

What I would do is to select her from the original photo she was in via the magic lasso and do an edit/copy.

Then on the image you wish to put her in, make a new layer and edit/paste her on to it.

The problem is that the background layer is locked by default so you will need to click on the padlock to unlock it. What I find that is better for adding a person to the back of the group (which involves making a cutout area of the background and placing the layered person behind that)  is to select the adjacent people who will be in front of her and copy and paste them on to a layer directly above the background and then place your added person on the layer behind them.

You can move layers around in the layer palette by clicking and holding them and pulling them up or below the adjoining layers.

I hope this helps.