Kate's Point of View

I’ve mentioned in past posts that I’m teaching an upcoming Photoshop course at work. I’m not an expert but I can make my way around the tool. I’m sharing my class in pieces. This post is about using the copying pieces from one image onto another.

There are real reasons why you might want to take part of one image and place it on another. Maybe you need to make a collage of images. Maybe you need a logo to appear on top of your picture. Maybe you want to reuse a watermark.

There are a few ways to copy parts of an image from one file to another. Regardless, you will need to open up both images.

Method 1: First go to the image from which you want to copy something. Click on the Rectangular Marquee Tool (if you’d prefer a different shaped marquee, click on that icon on your toolbar and hold down your mouse button so other shaped options appear and select the one that best suits you). It looks like this . After you have selected that tool and move your mouse over top of your image, you will see your cursor look like a plus sign. Put your cursor on one far corner of the area you would like to copy, click and drag to the other corner. When you release your mouse you will see a dotted line surrounding your selection.

Copy your select either by Control + C or by Edit … Copy.

Go to the image to which you want to copy something. Paste your selection from the other image either by Control + V or Edit … Paste. Your end result should look something like this:

It’s a step in the right direction but the newly pasted item is in an odd spot in the picture. You can drag it to the appropriate spot by selecting Move Tool, which looks like this , and dragging your pasted item to the correct spot. This will result in something more like this:

That’s definitely better, but the pink showing up on the background is weird. A better option here would have been method 2.

Method 2: When you are working with illustrations and things with solid blocks of colors, method 2 is likely a better option. First go to the image from which you want to copy something. Select the Magic Wand Tool, which looks like . After you have selected that tool and move your mouse over top of your image, you will see your cursor look like a wand. Click on part of the image you want to copy. Holding the Shift key, select all parts of the image you want to copy. When you are done, you should see dotted line surrounding your selection.

Copy your select either by Control + C or by Edit … Copy.

Go to the image to which you want to copy something. Paste your selection from the other image either by Control + V or Edit … Paste. Your end result should look something like this:

The newly pasted item is in an odd spot in the picture. You can drag it to the appropriate spot by selecting move tool and dragging your pasted item to the right spot. This will result in something more like this:

Not all items are as easy to work with as this example but the methodology you use is the same.

Want to start from the beginning? View class 1, which reviews the Photoshop toolbar. View Class 2, which reviews pictures for print versus web. View Class 3, which explores cropping and resizing images. View Class 4, which reviews balancing color. View Lesson 5, which goes over the clone stamp tool. View Class 6,which reviews color match.

As always, see something you disagree with or think is just plain wrong? Tell me! Seriously – I want to know.