Paint Shop Pro 6 & 7 Collaging
There are times when you have
an image of something and you just don't like where the principal in the image
is at. Take for instance my poor zebra who resides in a zoo. The image below
shows this zebra in his zoo home. We're going to take him out of the zoo and put
him in more lush surrounding.

The image below is where I
would like to have my zebra live. So, all we have to do is put the zebra from
the image above into the image below.

The first thing you want to do
is have both of your images open in Paint Shop Pro 6 or 7.
Select the foreground image (in my
case the zebra) and go to the Edit menu...Edit>Copy.
Select the background image and
go to the Edit menu again .... Edit>Paste>Paste as New Layer.
Your image should now have two
layers with the foreground image showing.
What we have to do now is
separate the zebra from his current surroundings so that the new surroundings
will show. To do this you need to use the Freehand selection tool. On the tool
options palette you want the selection type to be Smart Edge and be sure than
anti-alias is checked.
What I need to do is outline
the zebra so I will start at his leg that is closest to the front and work
around with the selection tool until I have all of what I want selected. You do
this by left clicking where you want to start and then release the left mouse
button. Move the mouse up to where there is not a fairly straight line from the
starting point and left click again. Continue in this manner until you have your
full selection.
Once you have your full
selection choose Masks>New>Show Selection. This will eliminate or mask out
all the stuff you don't want. Choose Selections>Select None.
Well that was quick but what
about all that mess around my foreground image?
To clean up rough edges around
your mask you use the Airbrush tool. You want to set the shape to round, the
size to a small size say around 5-10, and you want a low opacity say around
10-20.
Choose Masks>Edit. Using the
airbrush tool (left mouse button for white to unhide part of the mask) and
(right mouse button for black to hide part of the mask) paint around the edges
of the image until you have cleaned up the rough edges.

Now I think my zebra looks much
happier being out of that zoo!
This functionality is available
in both PSP6 and PSP7.