In this session, we are going to go to town with the methods learned in the last two.

Let's start with this picture. Nothing fancy, and that's just my point...

So, what can we do to make this image a tad more insane? Well, let's start by doing something totally different. Let's take the entire subject OUT of this image and transplant him into something else.

Start by selecting your Lasso Tool (shortcut L) and begin selecting around him.

Here's an important and cool trick: While you have the Lasso Tool selected, and you've drawn around part of his upper torso and let go of the mouse button and try to start selecting again... Notice how it makes a NEW selection, and all your previously traced/selected area vanishes?

Once you have an area selected, with your Lasso Tool press and hold Shift and select some more. This adds to your current selection! Conversely, pressing and holding the Alt key will subtract from your selection.

Once you have your subject cut selected, cut him out and begin on the new image.

Note that this image will be larger in Photoshop.

Now it's time to drop the subject from the last image in. Use what you've learned so far from the PhotoChopping Session 1 and PhotoChopping Session 2.

All you've got to do now is remove the top of the ladies head, after spinning round the subject from the first image and placing it over here. This is a good time to note that the Clone Brush is a better choice than the Healing Brush tool. Which you should be using to brush away the woman's head from the base image.

Also, once the subject is down, grab the Burn Tool (shortcut O), then burn shadows under the subject. I liked to do this over giving the layer a generic shadow since you have more manual control over it, since it's a complex image.

For good measure, I also changed the contrast and brightness (Image -> Adjustments). I dropped the brightness by -15 points, and the contrast was bumped up 5 points.

Give the image a click and take a closer look... So far so good. But look at what we have left over there... We need to put something in there...

Grab this picture of a Volcano and cut it out and drop it into our working image... :)

Now it's time to get fancy again. You're going to have to blend that image into the original. Remember to keep everything on their own layer, too. I just selected around most of the base and the cloud plume, then lined those up with the original hillsides.

This is where you have to get creative. Use the Eraser Tool (Shortcut E), but at a very low opacity to blend the smoke into the clouds. Here's what I've got so far.

Don't be afraid to get in there with the Smudge Tool, as you learned from later lessons. Feel free to make moaning and groaning noises like Bob Ross while smudging around. Also, it's time to start using the Dodge and Burn Tool again (Shortcut O). The Dodge Tool is a good choice on the clouds, since they are to start quite dark, for instance.

Clearly... You can go all out. But if you've made it this far and made your final image look decent, you've got quite some PhotoChopping talent. :)

Affiliates and Uber Linkage