Photoshop how-to: 'Pop Out' picture

Make your pictures come to life with this simple tutorial

The image I used in this tutorial can be found here: http://www.graphicshunt.com/wallpapers/images/butterfly_with_flowers-7717.htm

I chose this image because the butterfly sat out further than the flower, making it easy to see which bit will ‘pop out’ of the photo.

STEP 1

Make two copies of your background butterfly layer (ctrl + J), then hide the background layer (click the eye beside the layer icon) – this will be kept as a backup in case a mistake is made.

STEP 2

We want to work on the top layer, so hide the second layer. Click the top layer so that it is highlighted.

Select the magnetic lasso tool and use this to select the butterfly and flowers. This only needs to be neat on the left and right – the rest can be done roughly.

NOTE: if the magnetic is not sticking to the section you want, you can place points yourself by clicking where you want it to grab. Also, if you make a mistake, you can remove the last point by hitting delete.

Your image should look something like that above.

STEP 3

We want to delete the bit surrounding the selection – go to select>inverse (or use shortcut shift + ctrl + I). Then hit delete. This will leave your image something similar to that above.

STEP 4

Now we want to work on the second layer, so hide the top layer and show the second, clicking it so it’s highlighted.

Select the rectangular marquee tool from the menu on the left.

Make a selection on your image like seen above.

NOTE: for this, you want to give the impression that it’s a frame around the image. I used this selection as it allowed for 2 different parts of the butterfly to ‘pop out’, as well as a little bit of flower.

STEP 5

We want to delete the ‘frame’, and so need to select the inverse – select>inverse (or use shortcut shift + ctrl + I). Then hit delete.

Your image should look similar to that above.

STEP 6

We want to create a highlighted edge around this layer. Go to Layer>Layer style>stroke. For this, I used a size of 3px with 100% opacity. I chose a yellow colour close to that of the flowers in the image.

STEP 7

Create a new layer using the new layer button at the bottom of the right hand menu, and drag it between the background layer and the second layer.

Select the eye dropper tool, and choose a shade of green from within the picture. Then, using the paint bucket tool, fill the new layer with this colour.

Your image should look similar to that above.

STEP 8

Now that we have created the frame, we want to show all layers again. Your image should look similar to that above.

We want to refine the sections that are outside the frame – to do this, use the rectangular marquee tool. Select the flowers that lie outside the bottom of the frame, but DO NOT select the butterfly wing. Your selection should look a little like that shown above. Hit delete, then ctrl + D to deselect the area.

Use the magnetic lasso tool as before, to delete the section beneath the butterfly wing, keeping the wing over the frame.

After seeing the frame completed, you can choose which sections to delete away from the image – I also removed the flower from the right-hand side as I felt that it didn’t work well!