How do I layer images in Photoshop?

Question

I want to take an image with a white background and put it over another image (as a new background). Every time I try, the white stays. How can I fix it?

Answer 1

That's because the white is opaque. It is not transparent.

So you need to extract the foreground from the white background, then you can put that into the other photo.

Lots of ways to do this. Here's a start.

1. In the image with white background - use the Magic Wand tool and select the whole white background.

2. Go to menu, Select -> Inverse (now the person/object is selected, not the white)

3. Copy this to a new layer, use CTRL + J (you will see another layer in the layer palette on the right of your screen)

4. Drag the new layer that you made into the other image. (if it wasn't open, then open it and come back to this image to drag.)

5. Now in the combined photo you can move the one image, scale it, whatever you want, since it is a separate layer.

Try that.