How to place one person behind another in a photo?

[Bob Hawkins]

I have successfully isolated a person from a photograph, saved it as a .png file, imported it as a layer with another photograph, and flattened it to create one image. What I now want to do is have this person positioned partly behind another. Is there a tutorial for this, or can someone instruct me, please?

[mountnman]

you put the two people on seperate layers- and then use the mover layer down or the move laye up button in the layer toolbox to put the layer with the person you want behind lower than the layer with the person you want in front

ex: you have three layers- background layer is just that, background; layer 2 contains person you want in front; layer 3 contains person you want behind- you would click on layer 3 in the layer tool box, then hit the move layer down arrow, you could then move the person in that layer slightly behind the person in layer two making them "look" to be behind - if there is a significant distance you want between the two you might need to scale the second person to create the illusion of distance

this requires isolating BOTH people, i know a bit more work intensive but---

Edited December 9, 2010 by mountnman

[Bob Hawkins]

mountnman

I understand what you write and thank you for it. As you indicate, there is a fair amount of work involved. However, in the absence of anything simpler or quicker, it is certainly a solution for what I am trying to do. I thought that something might exist along the lines of a mask being made from an outline, or polygon, of part of the person in front, which, when placed appropriately over the person to be behind, would delete that area. (So difficult to describe in words!)

[Sarkut]

You can make a mask in black on a new layer.

Have it cover the person to be in front.

Use it with the Alpha Mask Import plugin.

Apply it to the person to be behind.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Reading this may provide some insights: http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/12753-how-to-clone-yourself/

[Bob Hawkins]

Sarkut

I am sure that your procedure is precisely what I need. Sadly, in spite of my many hours trying, I have not been able to achieve the desired result. May I state what I have done so far, bearing in mind that I have one .jpg file that is the complete photograph that will have a person added to it, and one .png file that is the person extracted from another photograph:

I created an outline on a new layer over that part of the person from the complete photograph who is to be in front that will cover the person who is to be behind.

I used the Magic Wand to select the mask area, coloured it black with Paint Bucket, inverted the selection, switched to the layer that is the photograph and pressed 'Delete' to remove the surrounding area, leaving the mask itself.

I deleted the layer that is the photograph and saved the result as Mask.png.

This where it goes wrong: I open the .png file of the person and 'Import From File...' the mask. I can move the mask over the person but, having pressed 'Ctrl' + C and activating the Alpha Mask plugin, nothing happens, although I have managed in the past to remove everything but the mask area.

Will you or someone help, please?

Edited December 10, 2010 by Bob Hawkins

[Sarkut]

Follow this link, and click on the image to expand it.

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/29/wippng01.png

If you need additional explanation let me know.

Hidden Content:

I created an outline on a new layer over that part of the person from the complete photograph who is to be in front that will cover the person who is to be behind.

I used the Magic Wand to select the mask area, coloured it black with Paint Bucket.

This is good, so far. You have created the mask.

==================================

inverted the selection, switched to the layer that is the photograph and pressed 'Delete' to remove the surrounding area, leaving the mask itself.

I deleted the layer that is the photograph and saved the result as Mask.png.

This where it goes wrong: I open the .png file of the person and 'Import From File...' the mask.

This part is unnecessary.

===================================

I can move the mask over the person but

Don't move the mask. It is already positioned where it needs to be.

Move the person to be added into position, and let the already positioned mask do its work.

The mask needs to maintain its position where it was made.

======================================

Copy the mask as shown in the linked tutorial.

Ctrl + A

Ctrl + C

Ctrl + D

Edited December 11, 2010 by Sarkut

[Bob Hawkins]

Sarkut

I have the two files open, the Mask layer above the person layer with both layers checked, all as in the tutorial. I press 'Ctrl' + A, then 'Ctrl' + C and get a message, "There was an error copying the image to the clipboard". Any ideas?

I've done it! Simply using 'Ctrl' + C without 'Ctrl' + A seems to have made the difference. Removing the checkmark against the Mask layer and selecting the Image layer before opening the Alpha Mask plugin seem to be key.

I thank you for the link to the invaluable tutorial and for your advice and patience.

Edited December 11, 2010 by Bob Hawkins

[Sarkut]

Try saving, closing Paint.NET, then re-opening the file and try again.