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Trade Tricks: Replacing Backgrounds

Three easy steps to save or enhance your portraits

Paint. This particular background was created by cropping a small portion of a different image. The various nuances of colors and tonalities give depth to the image and make it more aesthetically appealing. Following are the steps to make your own background like this one.

Open a separate image. Find an area in the image that has an interesting mix of various colors and designs, and then crop that portion. For different effects, play around with Hue and Saturation adjustments, and experiment with different filters like Gaussian blur or Stained Glass plus Motion blur. Next, drag and drop your new background into your portrait file. Use the Transform tool (Edit > Transform > Scale) and scale it to fill the background behind your subject.

Cleanup. I noticed some areas that needed to be cleaned up so it would look like one and not two separate shots. I used the Eraser tool at a low opacity and got rid of some of the rough pieces around the hair and shoulders. I then continued to smooth out the edges with the Blur, Smudge and Stamp tools. In finishing, I dodged the background to match the highlights on the couple. This added depth to the overall image and helped in connecting the compiled photos.

 

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