Newbie looking for basic simple guidance

[tisatashar]

I am photoshop illiterate...just so you know where we are starting from.

I have access to Photoshop CS on this PC and why not do something creative in my spare time. So can someone guide me thru my first attempt??

I want to start with a picture (its BMP) add a second pic on top and maybe tweak it a bit and then merge (flatten?) & use it as a desktop background.

Could someone post a few numbered steps to kick me off plz??

 

[tfoster]

Why don't you just browse through some of the beginner tutorials on this site? That's more than enough to get you started...!

 

[Welles]

Welcome to the forums, tisatashar.

You've chosen a project which we should be able to help you do. Are the two images the same size? Do you want parts of one on top of the other? Do you want to take parts of both and merge them into one image?

It would help us if we could see the images and then get a description of your goals. Could you open the two images in Photoshop, duplicate them so you don't make mistakes with the originals (File > Duplicate... and then close the originals), reduce the size so they are something like 450 pixels wide (Image > Image Size... ) and then save the resulting images using File > Save For Web... In the Save For Web dialog choose JPEG as the file format and 50 Quality. Once you have the JPEGs you could upload them to this forum and we could see what we were helping you to do.

Do be aware that entering the world of Photoshop will require considerable effort on your behalf. The entire language will be foreign and yet that is the only one we can speak when discussing the program. Your best friend will be the Photoshop Help menu and Google. Here are the PSG beginner tutorials...

http://photoshopgurus.com/tutorials_beginner.html

 

[tisatashar]

Thanx for replying.

I'm not totally P/Shop illiterate. My workplace from years ago used to do some of their own layouts for client work, flyers/brochures/bus. cards etc etc and the artist used to let me help out a bit.

For a short while I used to know some stuff in Photoshop 3&4 and illustrator. But that was a long, long time ago. 8 yrs.

Back to my query.

The job's pretty simple. One full background pic and a smaller one pasted on top. Maybe a few tweaks to blend it but no cutting etc required.

Imagine your avatar in still mode...

 

[Welles]

That does sound pretty simple. So Open your first BMP in Photoshop. It will be the background layer in the Layers palette. A background layer does not support transparency so if you are going to need some transparency double click on that Background layer and up will pop a dialog allowing you to name the layer. Click OK. Now it is a floating layer and supports transparency.

Now open the smaller image in a second Photoshop window. What you need to do is to use the Move tool (press the v key to make that active or it is the upper right tool in the tool box). Make the smaller image active and using the Move tool click and hold on the image and drag it to the original larger window. It will become a new layer and you can drag it around to place it where you wish in the image.

At that point I'd use File > Save As... and save the file as a .psd file. Then close your original files without saving and they will remain as they were originally. Once you do that let us know what you might wish to do from there... make a soft edge, put a border around it, drop shadow the possibilities are endless.

 

[tisatashar]

thanx. 8D

I'll be back later too try something more adventurous if you don't mind.