Tips and tricks

Hello!  I wanted to share with you guys one of my tips on how to get the most of your digi stash.  Today, I'm using a messy mask in a new way.  I will be clipping it to a photo to create the following layout:

The first step is to pick a photo.  It's best to use one that has good contrast between the background and your subject.  Here' s my original photo:

Next, I converted it to black and white (Alt+Ctrl+B).  Within that menu, you can also increase the contrast as needed.  You want there to be a clear distintion between your subject and background.  Here's what my photo looked like at this point:

Duplicate this layer and turned off visibility for your original layer.  From now on, all changes will be made to this duplicated layer.  Next, I  use my magic wand tool in PSE to select the white portion of my photo and clicked delete.  This is what I ened up with:

I used the erase tool to clean up any portion of my photo that wasn't part of my subject. Here's the finished photo:

For my clipping mask I used Victoria Feemster's Daydream : Messy Mats.  I layered it over my photo and enlarged it until it covered the entire picture.  I then clipped it to my photo (Ctrl+G).  Here's the final product: