How To Add Two Pictures Together In Photoshop

Allow's larn how to merge two photos in Photoshop in a few simple steps.

Among other endless amazing features, Photoshop allows you to combine two or more photos and obtain amazing images. The reasons for merging photos in Photoshop are many. If you're a landscape photographer and don't fancy having people in your composition, for instance, you might take more than shots and merge them afterward to fix your photos.

Or if you are into double exposure photography you'll need to merge two images to obtain the desired result.

So, let's hop into this guide and meet footstep-by-step what to do to merge ii photos in Adobe Photoshop. You can besides notice a video tutorial at the end of the article.

Related: How to edit photos in Photoshop

How To Merge Two Photos In Photoshop

Needless to say, you need multiple images. As I said before y'all might need to remove people from a background or any other distracting elements from your composition. Perhaps yous are working on a double exposure or you are but blending multiple images taken in dissimilar light conditions to obtain a certain effect.

My communication in general is to always have extra photos so that you tin can decide later what to practise.

Permit's begin with the kickoff step:

1. Select The Photos You Want To Merge

Showtime by selecting the two photos you wish to merge. Make sure the photos are taken with the same focal length lens because you can not merge the photos if the difference is too big.

Likewise, the lighting in the selected photos should be similar otherwise it will result in artificial-looking photos. Choose simple photos with the same resolution. In example you've selected 2 photos that are clicked at different places and time, make sure to adjust the white balance so they look as shut to each other as possible.

Take the two photos below equally an easy example. They were taken i afterwards the other with the camera on a tripod and the only difference is the exposure.

The photo on the left has a correctly exposed sky merely the dock is fashion too dark. You'd have to spend hours in Lightroom to gear up the exposure there and even then, you would terminate upward with an unnatural result.

Luckily I shot the same paradigm at different exposure and I could use the image on the correct to blend the parts I needed. The dock, in this case, with the reddish reflections of the fiery sky, is what I need.

ii. Open The First Photograph

Open up the first photo. If the main subject area is of different sizes in each photograph, so begin with the ane with a smaller size. The reason is, upsizing the photo may result in baloney whereas downscaling doesn't mess with the quality.

In our example they take the same resolution so no resizing is needed.

At present, tap the padlock icon from the right side of Layers Menu to open the background layer.

3. Open The 2d Photo

Subsequently finishing with the first one, simply drag the other photograph on the top of the first and align both the photos.

You can resize the pictures properly by using the transform handle effectually the edges and corners. Avoid enlarging the photos more than than 30% because it volition make them expect noticeably different from the originals.

4. How to merge ii photos in Photoshop: Marshal The Photos

It's time to position the photos. For this, select the Overlay option for the top image then that yous can run into the second layer hands. This way, you can align the main bailiwick in both images precisely.

At present, printing Ctrl+T (Windows) or Cmd+T (Mac) on your keyboard to select the Move option. Using information technology, align the top image to arrive look perfect.

Brand enough use of resize handles to shrink, overstate or rotate the acme layer so that both layers look alike.

In example your main subject gets disturbed, it will become hard to match both the photos. Therefore, be careful and avoid moving your photographic camera or the discipline.

Printing Enter when you lot're done with the positioning of your top layer. Now, change the blend mode of the superlative layer back to Normal from Overlays.

5. Add The Layer Mask And Erase The Unwanted Parts

Select the top layer and click on the Add Vector Mask option from the Layers panel for calculation a mask. By creating the mask, yous volition be able to eliminate the parts of the summit layer y'all don't desire to run across.

By clicking on the vector mask push you lot'll create a white mask.

That means, the mask has total opacity and everything is visible. Now select the Brush tool (B) and set it at 100% opacity and black color.

Now, with the mask selected, only brush over the parts you lot wish to remove. Brainstorm with the parts which are far from the parts you want to keep, this will ensure you don't erase whatsoever desirable role. Minimize the castor size and lower the opacity as you move closer to the parts you desire to keep.

Using a soft edge brush volition besides make sure yous don't affect unwanted areas when you come to close to it.

This volition make the transitioning very shine and preclude y'all from making mistakes. Yet, if you accidentally erase the desirable parts, but alter the color to white and reduce the opacity to 0.

In masking the epitome above I had to hibernate the majority of the photo, and then a convenient trick I used was to create a black mask and use a white Brush tool to unhide the needed areas. To create a black mask use Alt + Click (Windows) or Option + Click (Mac).

6. Check The Results

Especially when learning how to merge two photos in Photoshop yous need to pay attention to your layer masks.

Yous can highlight the layer mask by pressing backslash " \ " on your keyboard panel to check the accuracy of the mask and whether or non you demand to work on it.

The masked area volition announced in ruby. To see the epitome underneath the blood-red mask, arrange the mask density and encounter if there are elements you want to mask out (or in). Continue using the brush tool with the mask highlighted to fine-tune your piece of work.

7. Merge Both The Layers

You're virtually done here. Check again that your mask is accurate and finally merge the 2 layers.

There are a few different ways to merge different layers in Photoshop:

Select Layer and then Flatten Prototype option from the top menu. Photoshop will ask if yous want to discard hidden layers (if any) and combine the images. Hidden layers (if any) will exist deleted.
Y'all can apply the command Merge Visible, Ctrl + Shift + E (Windows), or Cmd + Shift + E (Mac) and all the visible layers will exist merged. Photoshop won't delete hidden layers in this case.
Then in that location'south also a hidden command, which is a keyboard shortcut. Printing Ctrl + Alt + Shift + East (Windows), or Cmd + Option + Shift + E (Mac) and Photoshop will merge the visible layers and automatically create a new layer with the merged images.

The third is my favorite way of merging layers in Photoshop since I like to keep my editing layers dissever to be able to go dorsum and make changes if needed.

Voila! Yous're done here. Now, you have a single photo that looks much improve than each one of the photos you've merged.

Bonus Video How To Merge Two Photos In Photoshop

Yous can as well check this official guide from Adobe here.

Conclusion

Hopefully y'all've learned how to merge two photos in Photoshop, or more than than ii!

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