How to put one image inside another image

forest inside a woman's face

There is an ad campaign in London at the moment for Portuguese tourism. You can see 48-,24- and 16-sheet adverts in the tube with giant portraits of famous Portuguese celebrities (Cristiano Ronaldo, José Mourinho) with a landscape showing through the image. Something similar to this effect that can be achieved with only a few clicks in Photoshop.

It helps to find a picture, like the one below of José Mourinho, that is lit from the side so half the face is white and the other half black. However, failing that, find a portrait that has a white background. Once the image is chosen, cmd/ctrl-click on either the red, blue or green channel in the Channels palette. This will give you a selection.

Now find your “background” image and paste it over your portrait image. Now click on the New Layer icon in the Layers palette to give you a blank new layer. With the selection still live, fill this layer with white. To do this either go Edit > Fill… and in the resulting pop-up box chose White for your fill (the quick key for this pop-up box is shift-F5) or simply go cmd/ctrl-delete to fill the selection with the background colour (the default background colour is white; to get the default foreground and background colours, simply press D). You knew that!

You may want to copy this white layer (cmd/ctrl-J) or alter it’s opacity.

This is a simple and effective way of putting one image inside another with interesting and eye-catching results.

forest inside a woman's face tutorial

You can download the PSD of the top picture here. 3.4MB

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This article was posted on Sunday, May 18th, 2008 at 1:12 pm and is filed under Marketing, Photoshop.
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15 Responses to “How to put one image inside another image”

  1. ND, on May 20th, 2008 at 12:23 pm, said:

    Interesting, I was able to achieve something similar by grouping the “background” layer to a doctored copy of the “portrait” layer—your technique is a lot quicker, though! Who are you going to be cheering for in the Champions’ League final tonight? (since you’re in London, I guess the obvious answer is Chelsea, but you never know…)

  2. Rob Cubbon, on May 20th, 2008 at 1:45 pm, said:

    Yes, ND, in the image of José Mourinho and the beach half his face is white which means they’ve left that portion of the picture untouched on top. Actually, my method isn’t really the same as that and your way is probably closer to theirs. I’ll amend the article accordingly. There’s always so many ways to do things in Photoshop!

    Anyway, no, I won’t be cheering for Chelsea. I’m a West Ham United supporter and we don’t like to see our neighbours do so well. And I think Man Utd play more attractive football. Enjoy the game!

  3. système d'alarme, on May 20th, 2008 at 8:31 pm, said:

    I am a photoshop self learner and I learned a new technique from your blog article and the blogs followed. I like it. Thanks for sharing these information.

  4. Rob Cubbon, on May 23rd, 2008 at 4:26 pm, said:

    No problem, système d’alarme, I’m glad it’s of some use to you.

  5. Aurora Graphic Design, on May 26th, 2008 at 6:52 am, said:

    Hi Rob,

    A really simple method, but as per your example shows the results can be pretty spectacular. I’m sure a lot of people will have fun with this one.

    Appreciate the guide.
    All the best.

  6. Rob Cubbon, on May 26th, 2008 at 9:46 am, said:

    Thanks, Aurora Graphic Design, I hope people have fun!

  7. Adam, on June 2nd, 2008 at 9:58 pm, said:

    Thanks for sharing this tip. I just try it out on Photoshop and I love it.

  8. Tom, on July 6th, 2008 at 1:18 pm, said:

    This blog let me stay a long time to learn all that new and simple techniques. When I saw the image, I didn’t believe that we can do so in an easy way. Thanks for sharing all your personal experiences.

  9. College Picks, on July 8th, 2008 at 12:44 pm, said:

    Wow :) Amazing.. I never thought that it’ll be that much easy.. but yet to try it

  10. Rob Cubbon, on July 8th, 2008 at 4:53 pm, said:

    Hello Adam, Tom and College Picks. Thanks for your encouragement, I’m glad you’ve found something of use in this website. It is quite easy to do. The difficult part is choosing two pictures to do it with. :) Peace!

  11. Photoshop Tutorials > How to put one image inside another image - Graphic Design Forums | Website Design Forums, on August 31st, 2008 at 1:08 pm, said:

    [...] permalink Take a peek: Freelance Graphic Designer London | How to put one image inside another image [...]

  12. Tim, on February 17th, 2009 at 6:41 pm, said:

    hello!
    im trying to make an advert poster in which i need to place an image of a gig in another image. to be specific, there are 3 people sitting at a bus stop and i want the picture of the gig behind the people but infront of the wall. how do i do that?

  13. Rob Cubbon, on February 18th, 2009 at 12:40 pm, said:

    Hi Tim, you need to cut out the people first. Have a look at this tutorial which describes how to design a montage and includes a bit about cutting out.

  14. Jacob David, on May 8th, 2009 at 5:13 am, said:

    I tried pasting the second image on top of the original image after selecting it.
    I could not do it. Do elaborate. Thank you.

    Jacob David.

  15. Rob Cubbon, on May 17th, 2009 at 12:55 pm, said:

    Hi Jacob, do you have a photo and a selection? Try filling the selection with white? Or masking out the selection by clicking in the “Add layer mask” button in Photoshop? Sorry to take so long getting back to you. Let me know if you still need help.

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