Placing things into other things in Photoshop

[rachmas777]

I want to place a picture of someone surfing into a picture of a sole of a shoe in Photoshop for my design class.

Does anyone know how I would do so?

Plz Help

[kglad]

[moved from Adobe Creative Cloud to Photoshop General Discussion]

[davescm]

Do you have an example of the two pics so we can better advise you? Also is it just in the outline of the show or do you want the treads etc to show?

Dave

[rachmas777]

Hi yes

here are the two photos I was thinking of using. I think just the outline of the shoe unless that would look good I can always try it out.

https://i1.wp.com/surfinglatino.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/VansSurf.jpg?resize=710%2C473

[davescm]

First off - ensure you have permission to use that surfer image (I've used another beach image, belonging to me, in the demo below )

Then

1. Add a solid white layer below your image

2. Use the quick selection tool to select the white areas of your image

3. Add a mask to hide selection then deselect

4. Place your second image above that layer

5. Alt click on the border between the beach layer and the show layer so that the beach layer is clipped to the layer below (i.e. only shows where the layer below has pixels)

Dave

[davescm]

If you want to take it a step further

1. Make a copy of the file from post #5 above

2. Switch off the beach layer

3. Change the background to 50% grey

4. Flatten the image and save it as Beachbump.psd (or whatever name you will remember and find)

5. Open the original from post #5

6. Convert the beach layer to a smart object

7. Go to filter distort > Displace and enter 15 into both boxes
When asked for the displacement map choose Beachbump.psd (you made above)

8. Change the blending mode of that layer to Overlay

9 Add a Black and White and curve adjustment layer above the shoe - clip them to the shoe layer (Alt click on border in layers panel)

10. add an overall curve layer at the top - adjust the two curves to get the effect you want

Have fun

Dave

[rachmas777]

Thank you so much!!!

[davescm]

You're welcome

Dave

[rachmas777]

I am kind of confused on how you got the beach picture to fit and form the shoe since the shoe is an odd shape? Every time I place the picture it is still just a rectangle and it doesnt look real

[davescm]

Hi

The "trick" was to do two things.

First mask the shoe so the white surround was masked off. That was steps 2 & 3 in post #5 above.  Where a mask is white the layer pixels show where it is black the pixels are hidden. That is why I added a new solid white background layer - otherwise the image would be transparent.

Second, when I added the beach picture I then used Alt-Click (Opt-Click on Mac) on the border between those two layers in the layer panel. You see a small down arrow appear (you can see it next to the beach layer in my layer panel screenshot in post #5). This causes the upper layer to be clipped to the layer below. What that means is the beach layer pixels are only visible where the pixels are visible on the layer below i.e. those where the shoe layer is not masked.

Dave

[Nancy OShea]

Have you done much work with Layer Masks yet?  That's key to compositing photos.

How to Use Layer Masks in Photoshop - YouTube

The Beginners Guide to Compositing - YouTube

https://phlearn.com/tutorial/beginners-guide-compositing/