Trying to swap 2 peoples heads!

[CookieMonster]

Hi,

I am very much a novice to Photoshop. I have CS2 courteousy of my work so I thought it would be fun to get profficient at it.

My challenge I set myself is to swap these 2 fellas heads: (tallest and shortest man in the world!)

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/07_01/TallSmall2AP_468x391.jpg

I can get as far as lassoing each persons head to a new layer each, but I want to try and swap them, maybe by making each head an image which can be then moved? No idea on best way to do it.

Also, this checked background, I want to clone over that with the background on the side of their heads but it doesn't clone over the background. How do I get around this?

Here's my rubbish attempt so far - in psd format http://kbab.co.uk/funny_WIP.psd

Kind Regards

 

[ronmatt]

you seem to be going through an awful lot to achieve a relatively simple thing.
Just copy the big head and paste it over the small head. Then copy a portion of the background and place it over the area the big head occupies. turn off the copied head and merge visible. now copy the small head and place it where you want it
and turn on the big head. Leaving the 2 repositioned heads on separate layers, position them where you want them. Activate the base layer and clone tool. Now start shaping the areas around the heads to make the heads appear as natural as you can. In my sample I reshaped the neck to accommodate the small head, and extended the blue scarf to look like it wraps around the neck. Then I activated the big head and did some shaping with the eraser tool. When everything was where I wanted it I merged. Then I did some cloning where the small head joined the neck to try to make it more natural
The trouble you're having with the clone tool is probably because you didn't have the correct layer activated ??

 

[CookieMonster]

Thanks for the advice, I understand more now about layers etc now. I like yours better than the one I did. Cheers