How do you add people to a photo?

Question

I'm still learing how to use my photo editing software. How can I add people from one photo to place in a different photo, so that the background changes? Some people have suggested photo layering, but I don't know how that works. Could someone explain how to do this in an easy to understand way?

All the photos are digital, and the software I use the most is "PhotoImpact", but I have other software, if that helps.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Photo layering is the only way you can do that. It's explained in the manual of the software package packed in the box when you buy it.

You need a REAL digital imaging program if you want to do sophisticated things... a free or bundled piece of imaging software is worth less than what you paid for it.

Answer 2

I'll add a few things Dr Sam had to leave out.

Always work with copies of your photos, make a new copy for each step, best copy all temporary results so you can always go back just one step if it goes wrong.

Change the size of the photos till the people are the right size. If posible only change the photo where you will cut out the person, not the one where you will paste it in.

Take the photo with the person to take out, cut it till it is just a tiny bit bigger than the person, photo that is not there can not be copied by accident.

I prefer to select the part taken out of the photo by colour selection, in the software I use called magic want, but mostly that does not really work.
If it does not work, I follow the ourline of the figure by freehand selection. Or by painting the not wanted parts one colour, white is my prefered choice but if the person is wearing white I will have to use a different colour.

Go in real close, you need to see the separete pixels in the photo, to decide which is part of the person and which is background.
Be careful to get all the hair, and the ears and so.

At the end of this process you have a lonely figure on a empty backdrop.
If the backdrop is now painted in one colour, select all that colour and delete it.
If your software can not select one colour, you will have to use the freehand selection, drawing the line in one flowing move all around the figure.

Select and copy, take a new copy of the picture in which you want to past (make a new layer if you can,) and paste into the picture (on the new layer.)

If the newly pasted figure is overlapping things he should be behind, and you have him on a seperate layer, whipe away that part.
If you have just one layer, paste the figure on an empty sheet and wipe away whatever needs to go.
Now select, copy and paste into a new copy of the picture again. Keep repeating the last two motions till you have it right.
Throw out the bad versions, but keep the ones that are nearly good.
If at this stage you notice that the sizes are not good, resize the figure. (By 1 % if posible, as it is easy to overdo.)

When you are pleased with the new photo make one last copy and safe it with its new name, and give yourself a pat on the shoulder.

Answer 3

What you would not understand is that this would take about 5 or 10 pages in a manual to explain, so we can't really answer this question here. Use the help feature of your software and look for "layers," which is what you need to learn about. You also need to learn about "selection tools" and "copying" your selection. I guess it can be done without layers, but if you make a mistake it is much easier to fix it if you are working in a separate layer.

Capsule summary...

Open both images.
Create a blank layer in the one you are adding the people to.
Select and copy the people from the other image.
Drop them into the new layer on the first image
Move them into position.
Erase any parts that would not look right, like a leg that should be behind the dog or something like that.
Merge layers.
Print.

If I explained each step above, this would take too much room for Yahoo! Answers to allow the answer to be posted.