How to create a backround image for only half of the picture

BN
Posted By
Bob_Noll
Dec 1, 2003
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361
Replies
7
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Closed
Reading past threads has been a great help so far, thanks. After hours of trial and error, I would appreciate your help with this problem. I have photoshop elements 2.0

I would like to take a picture, separate it into 2 parts, keep the bottom half as it is in its original picture, take the upper half and create a background image. To split the image, I would like to separate it across the diagonal of the picture, top left to bottom right with a line that has a slight wave to it. If you want you can visit the home page of www.corian.com, it has this wavy line separation – except my picture will be one picture with the top half being a backroung image( I will later add text to this backround portion and use it for my web site – I know how to add the text).

I know how to create a backround from the tutorial. How do you separate the picture to perform this "backround" function? And can you separate it with a wavy line – with a white border perhaps.

Any help would make my day,
Thanks, Bob
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NS
Nancy_S
Dec 1, 2003
Bob,

I don’t know what you mean about performing a "background function", however this should get your started.

* have your Layers Palette open on workarea
* go to File>Save As and change it to .psd
* double click ‘background’ layer in Palette, accept the offered name of Layer 0 * right click on layer in Palette, choose duplicate layer * from the Tool Box, get the Lasso tool, the plain one, top of list * you may or maynot want to set a Feather amount in the box above * continually holding the mouse button down, make a wavy diagonal and then follow down the right hand edge and along bottom edge until you join up with your starting point
* you now have a dotted selection line around bottom-right half of image * create a new blank layer on top of stack
* click back on layer with selection active
* go to Edit>Copy
* click back on blank layer
* go to Edit>Paste
* click back on layer with selection active
* go to Select>Inverse (upper portion now selected)
* create a new blank layer, top of stack
* click back to layer with selection
* go to Edit>Copy
* click on blank layer
* go to Edit>paste

You have now divided the image into halves. Turn off the eyes in the Layers Palette for the two bottom-most layers.

For a white line
* if you are not still on the ‘partial layer’, click back to it * hold the Control key on keyboard down and click in Palette on layer * selection line appears
* in Tool Box, have white for foreground color
* go to Edit>Stroke
* choose "Outside" in the box and a width, maybe like 20 pixels * white line shows in middle, but not at edges NOTE: you can also, after getting the selection line, create another blank layer and put the line on it. Allows more flexibility later for changes.
* make whatever changes you want to the upper partial layer (just have that layer active in the Palette NOTE: you could also add a bevel with Layer Styles to one half

hopefully this will get you started

Nancy
DS
Dick_Smith
Dec 2, 2003
Nancy,

What a great set of instructions!

When is your book coming out? 😉

Dick
BN
Bob_Noll
Dec 2, 2003
Nancy,
Thank you so much for your help. You are so nice to help me with that. This is going to make my web site, as I will use this technique on each of my main pages. I worked with it last night and today to get things to work. While I read the Adobe book, I don’t think I would have been able to do it without each line of your instructions, because I never worked with layers before. What I meant by "background" was that I selected 1/2 of the picture and went to:
enhance > adjust color > Hue/Saturation > then I changed the hue to one color and made it lighter. Then I added text to this "washed out" portion of the picture, and that is my heading for the page. The only thing I have left to do is to read on how to make my white line not so jagged. It looks great! Thanks! It’ll be much better than my last web site, quickbabysite.com, in which I was only able to use a block of blue and text. If you remember, check it out to see your work, it will be up in 5 weeks and will be called remodelinginformation.com.

Dick, that’s a great idea! . It’s funny that you referenced a book, because I was thinking that it would be great if there was a book on Adobe Elements 2.0 applications. Adobe is so powerful, but you don’t know what it can do unless you see an example and have some directions on how to get there. The Adobe book has maybe 10 pictures. Unfortunately, I don’t have the imagination to read the procedures on using the tools and come up with how I can make something with those tools.

Bob
TS
Trevor_Somers
Dec 3, 2003
Or else what you could have done is just used the retangular selection to cut half of the image OVER AND ABOVE the wavy line, then paste it on to another layer. then by using the eraser tool, select a small soft brush and erase the garbage of the wavy line. SIMPLE!
NS
Nancy_S
Dec 3, 2003
Bob,

You could soften the white line, if placed on its own layer, with Filter>Blur>Glaussian Blur. Have the preview box checked and you can view the changes as you try out different values in the Blur box. Also you could experiment changing the opacity of the layer the line is on. (Which are two of the reasons I suggested putting the line on its own layer…allows more flexibility for things to come).

Come back if you run into another snag, there are always good people here willing to help.
BN
Bob_Noll
Dec 4, 2003
Nancy,
I worked with the blur options – it worked fine, I’m all set. I can’t believe how much I’ve learned the last couple days. Thanks again for getting me started in the right direction.

Bob
NS
Nancy_S
Dec 4, 2003
Bob,

It’s good to hear you are off and running! Understanding layers is a must as it is what makes the program so powerful. If you do a search on Google for tutorials you will have hundreds of hits. These are a good resource for learning. Jay has excellent material at his site about PSE.

<http://arraich.com>

It is also vital to understand the whole resolution issue. Wayne Fulton has a great site for the concepts.

<http://scantips.com>

Remember to always work on a copy and save your originals in their pristine state just as if they were your film negatives. When beginning to edit an image, change the format to .psd.

Have fun with the program and just play with it.

Nancy

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