How to Make Your Own Backdrops in Photoshop Elements
With a few choices in Adobe Photoshop Elements, you won't have to settle for plain walls, dusty curtains or boring landscapes as your photo backdrops. Elements comes with a large collection of patterns and textures, such as bubbles, marble and tie-dye, which means you can place your images on backgrounds not capturable with a regular camera. Make general backdrops to use multiple times or create custom ones to go with a special photograph.
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Instructions
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Start Photoshop Elements. Click the "File" menu and choose "New." Enter "NewBackdrop" into the "Name" box. Enter the dimensions for the backdrop in the "Width" and "Height" boxes. If you're preparing a backdrop for specific dimensions, such as a photograph that is 4 inches by 6 inches, you may want to keep the same proportions, such as a backdrop of 5 inches by 7 inches. Click "OK" when satisfied.
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Click the icon of a paint bucket on the tool column. Pull down the paint bucket menu, which shows "Foreground" by default, on the new toolbar that opens at the top of the screen. Choose "Pattern."
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Click into the unlabeled pattern box next to the menu. Click a pattern to use as the backdrop. For more options, click the small triangle in an arrow icon. Choose one of the collections at the bottom of the fly-out menu, such as "Color Paper" or "Nature Patterns." Click the "Append" button. Rescroll through the patterns and click one.
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Hover the cursor over the blank "NewBackdrop" box and click anywhere within it to fill it with the backdrop design.
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Brainstorm what you may want to put on the backdrop and how you'll want the two images to complement each other. Slide the "Opacity" bar down to 25 percent and click again. Notice the backdrop is now strongly muted, which will make whatever you put in the foreground much more visible. Experiment with the "Opacity" slider and the other patterns until your backdrop is complete.
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Click the "File" menu. Click "Save As." Choose a place to save the backdrop and select an image file, such as JPG from the "Format" drop-down menu. Click the "Save" button.
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Tips & Warnings
Once you've actually created your backdrop, using it is just a matter of picking what should go in the foreground. Open any image and use the Lasso tool to draw an outline around just the part of the picture to keep, and what you want to place on the backdrop, such as a group of people. Once selected, press the "Ctrl" and "C" keys to copy it. If the backdrop you just made isn't open, open it and then press the "Ctrl" and "V" keys to paste in the copied image. Drag the image around, position it and use Elements' sizing options to resize the foreground to perfectly fit its new backdrop.
