PS I Love You: How to Replace Backgrounds

(Marianne’s photo used with permission. // ORIGINAL)

San Francisco Magazine had a beautiful fashion spread in their March issue called Flight Patterns. I don’t normally look inside SF Mag — it’s way too fancy for me (it’s really upper crust and I prefer pizza crust). However, the cover was so colorful that, against my every instinct, I just had to look inside and wow, I’m so glad I did! What grabbed me about this photo spread was the unique bright and bold backgrounds in every shot. I’m pretty sure the backgrounds weren’t Photoshopped in, but I thought it would be fun to do a tutorial about replacing backgrounds in Photoshop.

Masks

This tutorial is another example of the power of masks. You may have noticed that the last few tutorials touch on masks in some way and that was intentional. Masks give us the flexibility to do so many cool things with our images by hiding portions under virtual “masking tape”. I talk more about masks here, but here’s a summary:

1. Use a BLACK brush to conceal portions of the selected layer.
2. USE a WHITE brush to reveal portions of the selected layer.
3. USE a GRAY brush to add transparency to parts of the selected layer.

Special Thanks

I want to thank Marianne of Esme and the Laneway for giving me permission to feature her lovely photo in this tutorial — thanks, Marianne! ♥

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. ♥