Crowning the King

PSP Tutorial for September 27, 2001

In this exercise learn how to copy a piece from an 8 bit, 256 color GIF image
then paste, edit and position on a 24 Bit, 24 million color JPEG image.

" I have been trying to get two pictures into the one. I want to get the crown onto the
subjects head. I have been looking at help and trying all sort of ways to do it, but am
at a standstill. I tried the 'Arithmetic' and could get them together in black and white but that's it. Can you help me?"

What she wants to do is take the crown from the 8 Bit GIF image and position it on
the head of man in the 24 bit JPEG image.

Main point to be learned here is to move the piece of the 8 bit image, the crown, to the
24 bit JPEG image not the other way around. Always go from lower color depth to
higher. ;)

Open both images below in PSP. (Right click on both images on the left and do a
save image as... )

Click on the Crown image title bar to select it.

Pick the magic wand tool from the Tool Palette.

On the Tool Options Palette, set the following: Match Mode to RGB value, Tolerance to about 25.

Click in the white background outside the crown.

The crown is selected indicated by the marching ants marquee around it.

One more step... go to Selections again on the Menu Bar and pick Modify and Contract from the flyout boxes.

On the Contract Selection dialog box, set number of pixels to 1. Press OK.

(Contracting the selection removes the residual white ring from around the crown so it won't look crummy on a background other than white.)

Your image should look like mine on the
left.

Click on the title bar on the Man's image to make it the Active image.

Go to Edit again on the Menu Bar and choose Paste, Paste as a new layer from the flyout boxes.

The crown comes in on the center of the image.

Open the layer palette in PSP if it's not already visible and notice Layer 1 above the background layer.

That's the crown! All alone on its own layer and ready to edit.

Pick the Mover Tool on the Tool Palette.

Click and drag the crown into about the right location on the head. We will tweak its location later.

Pick the Eraser Tool on the Tool Palette.

Shape = Round
Size = 5
Hardness = 0
Opacity = 100
Step = 25
Density = 100

Check the Build up box.

Using the Eraser Tool, erase the bottom part of the crown that should be on the back of the head.

Your image should look like mine on the left.

On the Tool Palette, pick the Deformation tool. Third tool from the top.

Clicking and dragging center node moves the whole crown around.

Moving the node on the end of the stick in the middle rotates the crown.

Give it a go and position and size the crown the way you want it.

When you have it done, click the Apply button on the Tool Options palette or just pick another tool.

My finished image looks like the one of the left.

To prepare e-mail, you could
go to File > Export, Pick JPEG Optimizer and follow the instructions.