Welcome to the short series of tutorials designed to present a simplified look at multiple image compositing in Photoshop CC, so that you can quickly get started combining your own photos into new image creations.
Making composites from different photos is one of my favorite things to do in Photoshop CC because there are so many ways that I can create interesting designs and intriguing, imaginary scenes.
In this tutorial we'll start with the first part of the compositing process and take a look at a couple of ways that you can combine different photos into a single file.
This aerial shot of a vineyard will serve as the background scene from my composite.
I want to add some additional photos into this file to create an image that could be used for promotional or editorial purposes.
I'll add the first photo using a simple drag and drop method.
This is very easy, and it works with both the Mac Finder and the Windows File Explorer.
To do this, go out to your system and locate the file you want to add and simply drag and drop it onto the open Photoshop CC file.
The image will appear with a transform bounding Box around it as you can see here.
At this stage you can click and drag on any of the small square handles to resize the photo.
The scaling will always be proportional and will not affect the original aspect ratio of the photo.
If you wanted to change the proportions of the photo as you scale it smaller, hold down the Shift key while you click and drag on one of the square handles.
I'll choose Command Z on a Mac or Control Z on Windows to undo that last move.
For this image, I want to scale it smaller to about 40 percent of its original size.
You can see that value reflected up in the Width and Height fields of the Options bar.
That looks pretty good.
So, to apply this, I can click the checkmark button in the Options bar, or you can also just press Enter on the keyboard.
In Photoshop CC 2019, you can also apply a transformation simply by clicking in the main document window outside the transform bounding box.
I'll click the checkmark in the Options Bar.
I'll get the Move Tool and let's just adjust this right about there.
Now, if we look down at the Layers panel, you can see that the photo has been added as a new layer.
This little icon in the corner of the layer thumbnail indicates that this is a smart object.
Smart objects are a special kind of layer, that allow you to apply transformations, such as scaling a photo smaller, so that the change is non-destructive.
In a normal layer, when you resize something to be smaller, Photoshop CC will discard the pixels on that layer to fulfill your resizing request.
If you have scaled the layer to be a lot smaller than the original, this could result in a loss of image quality, if later on, you decide that you want to return the layer back to its original size.
With a smart object, however, all of the original image information is embedded inside the smart object and you can always return it back to its original size with no loss in quality.
So, for example, if I go up to the Edit menu and choose Transform, Scale, you can see the size that I scaled it to still entered into the Width and Height field in the Options bar.
And I can grab one of these handles and scale the image back up to its original size and it still looks great.
I'll just press the Escape key to cancel that operation.
And now let's explore another way that you can add an image to a composite that will also result in a smart object.
To do this, go up to the File menu and choose Place Embedded...
Navigate out to the image that you want to add, select it and click Place in the lower right corner.
As with the first image that I added, you can see the bounding box that will allow you to transform the image smaller.
In this case I'm going to scale it down to about 40 % of its original size.
Now, if you know the exact scale percentage, you can enter it here into either the Width or the Height field.
So, this was 40.12 px and notice that as I type that the Height is set to the same value.
That's because this linked icon is turned on here, which tells Photoshop CC to maintain the aspect ratio between the Width and the Height.
I'll press Enter to apply that value and then I can press Enter again or click the checkmark icon in the Options bar to apply the transformation.
And let's just move this into position right there.
There are other ways that you can add photos into an open file in Photoshop CC.
The main advantage of the method shown in this tutorial, is that they both result in the creation of a smart object layer.
This allows for open ended flexibility for transforming the new image element, which can be very useful when making multiple image composites.
