Selections Merging

Prepare image

• Download the photo by right-clickfing on it and click
• Save picture as on the popup menu to save the image in your folder.

• cats.jpg
• Open the image in Photoshop
• Save the image as a PSD (Photoshop) file with a new name.

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Try it

Separate a cat from the background & put in its own layer 

First create a duplicate layer of the background by clicking Layer>Duplicate layer on the menu bar, and clicking OK in the Duplicate Layer dialog box that opens up.

Be sure the new layer is selected in the layers palette.

• Visible palettes have a little eye to the left of them
• The selected palette on which you are working is blue

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select the black cat

• Select the magic wand on the toolbar
• Check the Contiguous Check box on the tool options bar
• Click the Add to Selection (second) button on the tool options bar
• Select part of the image, such as the sky with the magic wand
• To add to the selection, click any unselected parts of the image with the magic wand to add to the selection
• The selection is surrounded by the "marching ants".
• Save the selection so you can use it later by clicking Select>Save Selection on the menu bar.
• Name the selection with a descriptive name: sky
• If you click on the Channels palette next to the layers palette you can see your saved selection at the bottom of the Color channels
• Do Layer>new layer via copy to create a new layer holding just the selected part of the image. You can find this command on the menu bar or by right clicking on the selected layer. 

Select new layer in layers palette.

• Visible palettes have a little eye to the left of them
• The selected palette on which you are working is blue

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Create a second black cat in your photo

• Turn off the visibility of the other layers by clicking the little eyeballs to the left of them. Now you should see a layer with just the cat in it..
  
• Reload the selection onto this layer by clicking Select>Load Selection and choosing cat.
• Turn the visibility of the layer below the cat back on by clicking the little eyeball to the left of the layer
• Move the cat away from the original black cat in the background. The selection should move with it.
• Click Edit>Transform to open up a popup menu with a number of different transform options. Try some of them.
• When you are happy with the results, double-click the transformation to save it

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Do the same to the gray cat

Select the Gray cat with the Magnetic lasso tool. This tool tries to stick to the light/dark edges of an object. Be sure to close the line

• You can smooth out the edges of the selection by clicking Select>Modify>Smooth
• Select a number like 4 or 5 pixels to smooth out the selection
• Save this selection (Select>Save selection) with a different name
• Create a new layer with just the grey cat (Layer>Layer via copy)
• Create another new layer with just the grey cat to do a gradient fill