Adobe Digital Kids Club Lesson submission Photo Editing, Changing backgrounds

• Overview Students learn how to make changes to picture backgrounds.

• Instructions 1. Locate and save a photo or picture of a landscape that includes a large

portion of sky. 2. Open that picture in Photoshop Elements by click on File>Open and

browse to that picture:

3. Make a copy of the background layer. It is always a good idea to leave the background layer untouched. If you make a mistake you can always delete the layers you have made and start again. To copy a layer, right click on the one you want to copy and select “Duplicate Layer”. Rename the layer if you wish.

4. Next we will remove the original sky from this picture so we can replace it with other sky pictures. Because the sky is close to one color, we can use the magic wand tool:

5. Using the magic want tool, click on a section of the sky.

Notice that only a portion of the sky is selected. The magic wand is designed to pick all the pixels that are next to the selection point and are close to the same color. To add to the selection, click on the “Add to selection” tool on the options bar and click on the rest of the sky. You may have to select several points until the whole sky is selected.

Entire sky is selected

6. Now we will remove that sky. Tap the delete key on the keyboard.

Notice you still see the sky in your picture. That is because the background layer on the bottom is showing through the transparent section of the background copy. To see the change more clearly, click on the eyeball next to the background layer to “turn off” the background layer.

7. The layer should now look like this:

Gray and white checkerboards indicate transparencies.

8. “Turn off” the selection by clicking Select>Deselect

9. Obtain other types of sky pictures and save them. Browse to one of them and open it in elements. Click on File>Browse:

10. Now let’s drag the new sky into the original picture. Close the File browser so it is out of the way and Click on the background layer. Hold your mouse down drag and drop it onto the original picture

11. Your new sky is now on the original picture but it is in the wrong order:

12. The new sky layer needs to go BEHIND the background layer. Click on the new sky, layer 1, and drag it until it is underneath the background copy:

13. To move the new sky, click on the move tool and move the sky around

until you like the new position. Remember to make sure your desired layer is selected or blue, when you attempt to make any changes to it.

When you are done with move tool “handles”, click on another tool on the toolbar to de-active them.

The move tool will provide you “handles” around the edge of the picture so that you can move, as well as resize, your picture.

14. Open another type of sky and add that.

Now you have three different skies. The sky on the top of the stack will be the one that is visible on the canvas.

Other examples: