Image editing tricks with Fireworks
Table of Contents
Superimpose an image
Picking up where we left off, we’ll use our laptop composition as a base photo for this one (see Figure 7).
Import your image to be superimposed into the canvas. For this task, choose a stock photo with the subject casting a shadow on a white backdrop. I grabbed an image of mangoes from stock.xchng; an apple was just too predictable. Convert it into a symbol (Modify > Symbol > Convert To Symbol), and then give it an opacity of 50% to allow you to see underneath when positioning and resizing the image.
Figure 8: Import the image you want to superimpose and change its opacity to 50%.
Use the Scale Tool to resize the mango image down to correct scale. Rotate the mango image to ensure that the shadows and highlights of both the base and superimposed photos match light sources.
When you’re done with the placement, set its opacity back to 100%, and change the blend mode to Multiply. This will allow the shadow parts to blend in with the rest of the base photo. We’ll take care of the mangoes themselves in the next few steps.
Figure 9: The shadows blend in perfectly.
Bring back the opacity
Now, trace a shape around the mangoes with the Pen tool. If your object has holes in it, trace over them as separate shapes, select them along with the base shape, and perform a Punch (choose Modify > Combine Paths > Punch). You should now have a shape that encloses the mangoes, excluding the shadows or holes.
Figure 10: Trace around the mango
Give your shape a nice white fill, and remove the outline that may have been there when you drew it.
Figure 11: Fill in any spaces in the shape with white.
Finally, move your shape layer directly below the mango layer. This brings back the full opacity of the mangoes.
Tip: At this stage, you can check and adjust your shape path to make sure that no parts of the shape are peeking outside of the mangoes (evidenced by white edges along the object outline).
Figure 12: The mango image is opaque again.
Now you can enjoy watching your mangoes bask in the light of an LCD screen.
Tip: If you’re superimposing a photo with a black background, use Lighten instead of Multiply as the blend mode for your photo, and fill your back shape with black instead of white. The only downside to using photos with a black background is that their shadows don’t show up. You’ll have to put one in afterwards, by either using the Drop Shadow Live Effect, creating a shadow shape and applying Gaussian Blur to it, or by painting it in manually.
Figure 13: The completed image
Where to go from here
For more information about Fireworks 8, check out the following articles:
- Fireworks 8 Basics by the experts at Adobe
- Fireworks 8: Only the Shadow Knows, by Jim Babbage
- Converting Marquees to Paths in Fireworks 8 by Linda Rathgeber-Stewart
