Blending Images(jpg) together

[Soixante]

I want a still image for a dvd background .....I cant find a decent Jpeg Bmp...so i have got these pictures..

http://lulzimg.com/i09/ce69cf.jpg

http://lulzimg.com/i09/edea02.jpg

i want to blend this one into them somehow

http://lulzimg.com/i09/17b9b5.jpg

Whats A newb easy way to do this please....maybe there is somewhere online i could do this.. and even better would be a full guide if avaliable

Thanks in advance

[jagabo]

What do you mean by blend? Do you want one picture overlaid on the other with 50 percent transparency? Or do you want them side by side?

[Soixante]

Yes i want the bottom one over layed on one of the top ones..i got this far as i foind http://www.online-image-editor.com/

http://lulzimg.com/i09/af0a5b.jpg

...but i want it so as the night sky overlays the white on the Jpeg..essesntially so that all that is seen is the characters faces and text..

Thanks

[jagabo]

I'm still not quite sure what you want. This is quite crude, but do you want something like this?

[Cornucopia]

I'm guessing you want something more like this:

This uses Blending Modes. There are many kinds (Normal, Overlay, Difference, Color Dodge,...). Once you try it out with the upper layer using a mode other than Normal, and possibly with a reduced level of opacity, you'll probably be able to get what you're looking for.

You'll need a photo editor that supports Layers and Blending Modes and Transparency. The editor of choice is Photoshop, but you can even do it with freeware tools, I chose my example below using Paint.Net. Gradient Masks added to the upper layer would probably have helped out with the legibility of the text, but I was in a hurry. You know, this looks alot like those old openings for "McMillan & Wife" or "McCloud". Kind of appropriate, eh?

HTH,

Scott

[juststarting]

How do you get the faces trimmed out of the background so evenly. I've tried Photoshop and always seems to look like the top trim job unless I spent hours moving all the points and still leaves a sharp edge whereas yours seem more blended (I realize it's because you know what you're doing)---any good books for Photoshop for the beginner besides the same old ones with the boat you have to copy and paste?

[jagabo]

He just marked one of the images as 50 percent transparent and overlaid it on top of the other.

[chowmein]

Sometimes I go to this site if I'm stuck on something in Photoshop.

[Soixante]

Im sorry i have not explaned it clearly as i have no background or have ever used image editors..But alas we got there ... Thanks Jagabo.. i like it and im wondering now if maybe thats the way to go..looks beter in my honest opinion..but Cornucopia has got what i was looking for..ill have to find a better quality pic of the guys as i want that a bit more vivid stand out..if you know what i mean ...i guess ill have to read up on items and methods mentioned..Thanks for the help

[juststarting]

Didn't notice the double overlay in parts. It thought it was trimmed like the top one only better with a clipping path.
Thanks

[Cornucopia]

Nah, it's just a 60% opacity on the top layer, and "Color Dodge" or similar blend mode. Resized the top layer, too, 'cause it was alot smaller than the other image. Took about 3 minutes to put together (since I wasn't used to where Blend Modes resided on Paint.Net). Would take about 30 seconds in Photoshop. I STRONGLY recommend photoshop (the pro version, maybe not so much the Elements version). Heck, it's even worth your while to get an old version on eBay or something. Anything version 5 or 6 or higher will do you well.

Scott

[jagabo]

If I was doing this seriously I'd make an alpha mask semi manually, then overlay the faces+alpha over the bridge in the background. That takes a lot of time to do so in my sample image I just quickly painted the parts I wanted to be transparent black. Then set black as transparent in the overlay.