How to Create a Background for a Portrait
Use an image manipulation program such as Paint.NET, GIMP or Photoshop to create backgrounds for your portraits. Several approaches exist for creating a background that complements a portrait's subject. Use a scene or setting related to the subject, or use your program's "Clouds" filter to create an abstract background filled with mist. You can fill the background with the complementary color of the portrait's dominant color. With flesh-toned subjects, for example, try a blue background.
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Instructions
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Click the "File" menu of your imaging program, then click "Open." Go to and open a portrait for which you'd like to create a background. The program will load the portrait.
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Click the "Layers" menu, then select "Add" if you're using "Paint.NET." If you're using GIMP or Photoshop, click the "New" command. This step creates a new layer for the background. Layers are virtual transparencies that you can stack to form a composite image.
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Open Windows Explorer, then go to a picture showing a scene related to your subject. For example, open a picture of a beach if your subject is wearing a bathing suit or sunglasses. Drag this picture onto your imaging program's Application window. The program will load the image as a new layer.
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Click the "Effects" menu if you're using Paint.NET, or click the "Filter" menu if you're using GIMP or Photoshop. Click the "Gaussian Blur" command, then drag the slider of the box that appears to blur the background. Click "OK" to complete the background blur.
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Drag the bottom layer in the "Layers" panel to the top of the panel. This makes the portrait appear on top the background.
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Click your program's "Lasso" selection tool. The toolbar icon for this tool is shaped like a lasso.
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Drag the cursor around the portraits subject to trace the subject. Click the "Edit" menu's "Invert" command if you're using Paint.NET. Click the "Select" menu's "Invert" command if you're using GIMP or Photoshop.
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Press "Delete" to delete the portrait's original background and reveal the background you created.
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References
- dotPDN: Paint.NET blur effect
- GIMP User Manual: 2009
- Photoshop CS5 Bible; Lisa Dayley; 2010
