Quick Photoshop Question

I'm trying my hand as masking and want to mask a person against a new background. I have my first layer open, the background layer. Now I want to open the picture that has the person on it, as a new layer, so that I'll have two layers, the background and the person. How do I open the jpg file that has the person on it as a new layer?

Open both files. Make the image you want to copy onto the other the active image, then Ctl-A (or Mack Cmd-A) to Select All (or menu Select/Select All). Then Ctl-C/Cmd-C to copy (or Edit/Copy). Of course, if you want to copy only part of the image, select only that part first.

Make the Background image the active image, then Ctl-V/Cmd-V to paste (or Edit/Paste).

I don't know how to open a JPG into an already open image, so what I do is that I just open the JPG like normal, then I "Select / Select All" then "Edit / Copy" the JPG. Then, I go to the background image and "Edit / Paste". The JPG will appear as it's own layer on top of the background image.

There might be an easier way, but that works for me.

Rad

Open both images as separate documents. With the move tool (the 4 way arrow thing) click on the document that contains the image of the person. Click and hold down the left mouse button On the person image and drag the person image onto the document containing the background plate and release the mouse (ie, drag and drop the person image into the background document). The person image should now be a new layer in the background document, located above the background. If you want the person image to come in centered in the new layer, hold down the Shift key while dragging and dropping.

Also try the "Place" command to place a file into an existing document.

Kirk

Thanks a lot guys! Photoshop is an endless well of learning.

As you can see, there's more than one way to do all kinds of things!

Is there any way so that when you copy it to the new layer it will be the same size, or do you have to make both documents the same size before you copy/paste?

John E wrote in post #8558233
or do you have to make both documents the same size before you copy/paste?

this

I outsource this kinda stuff, http://retouchpro.com/ are good and quick.

John E wrote in post #8558233
Is there any way so that when you copy it to the new layer it will be the same size, or do you have to make both documents the same size before you copy/paste?

If you want them to be the same size, resize whichever one you need to first. You can also paste a smaller object into a larger object if you'd like, such as a selection from an image, and resize it to whatever size you want. There's plenty of room to play around.