That photo from dinner last night could have been this year's perfect Christmas card, but your little brother was at baseball practice and isn't in the picture.
Your mom looks at you, the tech guru of the family, and asks hopefully, "Can you just Photoshop him in?"
[seealso slug="personal-life-apps"]
Knowing how to Photoshop a person into a photograph isn't just a great way to familiarize yourself with basic photo editing skills -- it's also a practical skill to have in the digital age. In the tutorial below, you'll learn how to cut and resize an image, adjust a layer mask and modify color levels. This tutorial is based off helpful tips from TutorVidCom.
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The first step to photoshopping a person into a photo is picking the right picture. Choose a photo of your subject that will work well with the photo you're editing. For example, if everyone is wearing a holiday sweater, pick a picture of the additional person wearing a holiday sweater, too. Common sense, right?
Using the lasso tool, draw a circle around the person you're adding. Don't worry about being super precise while cutting them out -- we'll get to that later.
Next, copy the highlighted selection and paste it into the desired picture. Position your subject in the space that you think it will work best. Using the free transform function, shrink him down to size so that he fits in well with everyone else. You should always shrink a person to fit them into the picture. If you enlarge them, they will appear pixellated and you'll blow your Photoshop cover. Make sure you hold the shift button when resizing, so the body doesn't get distorted.
To eliminate the excess of the person's background, you will have to use the mask tool, which you can find in the layers toolbox. Select a brush and adjust it to your desired size. The more precise you can be, the better the final product will look. Try to use a small brush when tracing out the background, and get as close to the subject as possible. Zooming in also helps you be more precise. If you want to "paint back" part of the mask that you removed, switch the black and white colors. Remember: Black erases the mask, while white brings it back.
Once you've erased the excess, you will have a better idea of what size your added-in person needs to be. Resize him again if necessary.
Now, move on to color adjustment. Use levels and adjust the curve of the reds and blues until he looks like he matches the rest of the picture. Remember to make the curve only apply to that one layer. You may also want to adjust the hue saturation if the colors still don't match. Finally, add in shadows to make the photo look as realistic as possible.
And voilà! You've just learned how to add a person into a photo using Photoshop.