Create a unique team-photo to share with friends

In this tutorial I will be teaching you how to jazz up your photo with an exciting background and effects. I will also be teaching you how to cut out the portion of the photograph that you wish to use for the compilation.

 Step one:

 You can select your section of the picture several different ways. The three ways I used in my picture are the Elliptical tool, the Lasso tool, and the magic wand tool.

 

• The Elliptical tool allows you to select areas by using shapes. You can resize by clicking and dragging and you can move your sized selection by pressing the spacebar while you resize.
• The Lasso tool allows you to select areas freehand, magnetically (the line clings to obvious lines in the photographs), or with a straight-line – depending on which one you use.
• The magic wand tool allows to you select certain areas based on color.

 Once your selection has been made delete the surrounding bits of the photograph by selecting Select > Inverse > Delete. Your picture should look like this with the background removed:

 Step Two:

Now for the background; double-click on the selection in the layers palate and give it a stroke with the following properties:

 Step three:

 Right-click on the same layer and select Convert to Smart Object. Repeat steps two and three until you have filled the screen with the desired number of outlines. This will create a unique, custom outline that will revolve around the picture selection and really make it stand out.

Step Four:

 Add text. You may use whatever style text you want. Below are the properties I used for the photograph:

 

My finished product:

 

The finished product will look different with each individual photo you edit. So experiment with different colors and stroke sizes. Good luck!

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