Vikki Olds

November 1, 2000

There are times when you have an image of something and you just don't like where the principal in the image is at. Take for instance my poor zebra who resides in a zoo. The image below shows this zebra in his zoo home. We're going to take him out of the zoo and put him in more lush surrounding.

The image below is where I would like to have my zebra live. So, all we have to do is put the zebra from the image above into the image below.

The first thing you want to do is have both of your images open in Paint Shop Pro 6 or 7.

Select the foreground image (in my case the zebra) and go to the Edit menu...Edit>Copy.

Select the background image and go to the Edit menu again .... Edit>Paste>Paste as New Layer.

Your image should now have two layers with the foreground image showing.

What we have to do now is separate the zebra from his current surroundings so that the new surroundings will show. To do this you need to use the Freehand selection tool. On the tool options palette you want the selection type to be Smart Edge and be sure than anti-alias is checked.

What I need to do is outline the zebra so I will start at his leg that is closest to the front and work around with the selection tool until I have all of what I want selected. You do this by left clicking where you want to start and then release the left mouse button. Move the mouse up to where there is not a fairly straight line from the starting point and left click again. Continue in this manner until you have your full selection.

Once you have your full selection choose Masks>New>Show Selection. This will eliminate or mask out all the stuff you don't want. Choose Selections>Select None. 

Well that was quick but what about all that mess around my foreground image?

To clean up rough edges around your mask you use the Airbrush tool. You want to set the shape to round, the size to a small size say around 5-10, and you want a low opacity say around 10-20.

Choose Masks>Edit. Using the airbrush tool (left mouse button for white to unhide part of the mask) and (right mouse button for black to hide part of the mask) paint around the edges of the image until you have cleaned up the rough edges.

Now I think my zebra looks much happier being out of that zoo!

This functionality is available in both PSP6 and PSP7.

Copyright 2000, Vikki Olds, All Rights Reserved