[StamperCat]

Could someone tell me where to look for the technique of blending a photo into the background that I see so often. Kinda like Angela's Bride layout in today's newsletter. I have lots of how to resources, but know where to start to find it. Is it a brush, just a blending mode, overlay or what? I do have the SG Secrets Book, but I just don't know where to start looking. Thanks for any bread crumbs to the right place.

[Sara Arell]

What program are you using? I do my blending in Photoshop and I also do some in my InDesign - maybe I can help if I know what you are using?

[cherise]

There are probably lots of different techniques that people use to blend the photos into the background... Here are a couple different ways that I can think of:

1) Use a combination of Blending Modes and Layer Masks (you can search Secrets for those techniques and/or the SG University for help.
2) Use a product like ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Background Blenders, ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Background Blenders II Biggie, or ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Background Blenders - Masks.

Hope that helps!

[StamperCat]

Sorry, I didn't mention the platform. I'm on a Mac using Photoshop CS5. Thanks for the topics to search for.

[Heatheranne]

Something that takes a little longer, but is fun to do, is to do it yourself. Place and position your photo over the background of choice, then click on your blending modes until you get the desired look. Quite often Overlay or Soft Light work well and you may want to lower the opacity as well, depending on the differences in colours between the background and photo. Then using a soft eraser brush, at a low opacity - maybe 30 or so - brush away the sharp edges of the photo. You can brush right up to the detail in the image if you like and may have to change opacity settings as you go. Loose extractions work well for this technique as well. As I said, this technique is fun, although can be more time consuming. The results aren't as professional looking as the methods mentioned earlier, until the technique has been practiced. This technique isn't program specific. HTHs :-)