Photoshop How To

Creating composites in Photoshop where you clip a subject from one background and place it in another is not hard but it's challenging to do it right. We don't know how many composites we've seen where the person or object that's been moved to a new background looks unrealistic because of a poor clipping job or an uneven blend.

If you want to learn how to do it the right way, watch the below video where Jesus Ramirez of the Photoshop Training Channel (PTC) shows you "how to match a subject into any background in Photoshop" so it looks real.

"In this Photoshop compositing tutorial, you will learn professional techniques to create realistic composites," Ramirez says. "We will cover everything from masking, matching perspective, matching color, and everything you need to match a person into any background."

During the free, 30-minute Photoshop training course below, Ramirez demonstrates the process of how to blend a photo to a different background to create a realistic composite.

"Is your compositing work looking flat an unrealistic?" Ramirez asks. "If so then check out this Photoshop compositing tutorial where I'm going to show you some amazing techniques to match a subject to any background."

Here's Ramirez's step-by-step process with times at where these techniques are discussed in the video.

#1 Place both images in the same Photoshop document (1:48-minute)

#2 Make a mask to extract the model from her background (2:35)

#3 Match the brightness of the composite (11:00)

#4 Match color of the scene (16:42)

#5 Match saturation in the image (19:15)

#6 Blur background (19:52)

#7 Adjust the composite with Camera Raw (21:21)

#8 Adjust and refine the details of the composite (24:20)