[Lando Griffin]

I want to be able to take someone's face and paste it on another photo (for fun). What's the best way to do it? I have been using Photoshop's lasso tool and I KNOW that there are more efficient (and less painful) ways of getting the job done. Which program do I use, etc? Thanks a lot!

[Synotic]

Originally posted by Lando Griffin:
I want to be able to take someone's face and paste it on another photo (for fun). What's the best way to do it? I have been using Photoshop's lasso tool and I KNOW that there are more efficient (and less painful) ways of getting the job done. Which program do I use, etc? Thanks a lot!

Well a method I use is to start a layer over the image and then use the brush tool with white and paint over the areas I want to erase. The advantages are that it's nondestructive, you can pick up your mouse, and you can erase any mistakes. If you want a slicker way of doing it, you can instead, while your layer is selected, hit the "Add Layer Mask" button at the bottom of the Layers palette. Should look like a circle in a square. From there you can paint black onto the layer mask and it effectively erases areas of the picture, but again, it's non-destructive. Make sure that you don't have any selection already when you hit the button or it'll affect the mask. Another option is the pen tool, but that might take some practice.

[dennisbolt]

There are multiple ways to do it.

1. put the new face photo on a layer above the original and either erase all but face, or use the mask feature which does the same thign without really erasing.

2. use the bezier pen tool and draw a path around the face if it is hard edged. this is easier than lasso because you can take your time and not drop the selection. Then "make selction" from the path palette and move over to target image.

3. Or you can use the clone tool to basically paint the new face onto the old face. you have to have the new face on the same document somewhere.

I would use the layers method, since you can manipulate the new face alyer until it is just right before committing.

[chris v]

If there's enough contrast on the background, try this: Do a rough selection of the face with the lasso, keeping just inside the face edges. . Invert the selection, then use the eyedropper in "Select by color range..." to select everything around the face. Then, invert the selection again. You can copy/paste the selection to a new layer to see how it worked.

CV