Photoshop Elements 6: The Missing Manual

Moving Layers Between Images

If you use layers, it's extremely easy to combine parts of different photos together. Just put what you want from photo A into its own layer and then drag it onto photo B. The trick is that you have to drag the layer from the Layers palette. If you try to drop one photo directly onto another photo's window, you'll just wind up with a lot of windows stacked on top of each other (unless you activate the Move tool, described on Understanding Layers). Figure 6-22 shows you the correct way to move a layer between photos.

Note

In an earlier version of Elements you could also drag a photo directly from the Photo bin into another image. That no longer works in Elements 6.

Here are a few points to keep in mind when you're copying a layer from one image to another:

• Watch out for conflicting resolution settings (see Resizing for Printing). The bottom image (that is, the one receiving the moved layer) controls the resolution. So if you bring in a layer that's set to 300 pixels per inch (ppi), and place it on an image that's set to 72 ppi, the object you're moving will now be set to 72 ppi.

  

  Figure 6-22. This figure shows how to move objects from one photo to another, working from the Layers palette. Here, the goal is to get the silverware from photo A (whose Layers palette is visible) onto the tablecloth in photo B (whose image is visible). You always drag from the Layers ...