How to use layers as background effects in Photoshop

Posted on March 11, 2009 at 5:43 am

Changing image backgrounds is one of the things I’ve always wanted to do with my pictures. It offers a lot of opportunity for Photoshop users; from making yourself appear to be in front of the great pyramids in Egypt or just for the fun of having an empty background. Below is a Photoshop trick that you can use using two layers of backgrounds and a cropped image of a flower as a center piece.

First your background layer should be separated from the image. Create a new layer for your secondary background by clicking the new layer icon at the lower right part of the layer’s control panel.

Fill the new layer with the color that you want for the secondary background. As an example, I used black as primary background and light green as the secondary background.

In the layers control panel, highlight or select the layer of your secondary background.

Click on the rectangular marquee tool in the toolbox (leftmost side of Adobe Photoshop screen).

Select a portion in your image, depending on your preferred dimension for the effect.

Then go to Select -> Modify-> Feather.

A window like the one below will appear. Write a value depending on your preferred radius of the feathering effect. You can experiment by changing the value of the radius.

After putting a value in the Feather Radius, click the OK button. Then press the DELETE key. Be sure not to forget to make the original background visible to see the complete effects.