How to Make Photo Shapes From Images

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By Richard Burke
eHow Contributing Writer

Article Rating: (15 Ratings)

Make Photo Shapes From Images

There may be a whole host of reasons to create a photo object in a certain shape—for instance, you may want to use it in a birthday card or party invitation. They are useful as website objects, CD or DVD covers and also as movie titles and credits. Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 makes it very easy to create photo shapes with the COOKIE CUTTER TOOL and save them in a variety of image formats. As always, first find an image to experiment with and then follow these easy steps to make new images in a variety of shapes.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0
A copy of a suitable image

Step 1

Open the Image

Open your image in Adobe Photoshop Image 6.0. As always, try to visualize what it is you want before you start. For this article I wanted to use a picture of a baby (everyone loves babies) and a heart shape. Simple enough, but I had to try three images before I could find the correct fit between template and image.
Step 2

Select Cookie Cutter

Select the COOKIE CUTTER tool from the toolbox at the left of the screen. This tool allows you to adjust the size, length, opacity and feathering of the particular shape that you select. The “heart icon” is a custom shape tool that allows you to create your own custom shape. For this example we will use the cookie cutter tool. However, you may want to experiment with the custom shape tool for more original shapes.
Step 3

Select Shape

Select the shape you want from the drop-down menu at the top. Each shape has its own option settings. The heart shape has a feather and crop option. Once you have selected the shape and options put your cursor over your image and “draw” the shape.
Step 4

Arrange Shape

The shape will appear with convenient resizing handles allowing you further adjustments. This will allow you to move and place the shape over your image. You can also resize the shape making it a tall skinny heart or a short wide heart. Once you are satisfied click the green check mark at the drawing bottom to apply the shape.
Step 5

Shape Options

With the shape selected you will notice that the shape options bar has changed. You now have controls over SCALE, SKEW, ROTATE and IMAGE Proportions. You can use these controls to fine-tune the placement of the cookie cutter template over the picture.
Step 6

Final Image

When you are finished, SAVE the shape image to a new name and title. It is new artwork and not a version of the original. The final image is the cropped portion of the original picture in the shape that you created. The creative use of these sorts of images in printing and on websites is really endless. Greeting cards, business cards, letterheads, website hot buttons, evites, invitations, animations and movies are just a few of the applications that pop to mind.