How to Cut a Person Out and Paste into Another Photo in Photoshop

It happens often in photography: you take a great picture of a person in the foreground, but something is not quite right about the background. Photoshop's Quick Selection tool enables you to relatively easily select that person and paste her into a photo with a more suitable background. Take advantage of the Refine Edge dialog to make more precise selections, dramatically cutting down on the editing you'll need to do to the person once she has been moved to the new photo.

1. Open the photo out of which you want to cut the person.

2. Click the "Quick Selection" tool on the Tools palette and then click the "Auto Enhance" check box on the Options bar to help smooth out the selection capabilities of the Quick Selection tool.

3. Click and drag the Quick Selection tool around the person you want to cut out. The selection line will automatically snap to the outline of the person.

4. Click the "Refine Edge" button on the Options bar to load the Refine Edge dialog.

5. Click "View" on the Refine Edge dialog and select "On Layers" to isolate your selected person on a transparent layer so that you can more easily see her outline.

6. Click the "Smart Radius" check box and click "2" to set the radius of your selection. Modify this number up or down to fine-tune the selection radius.

7. Set the "Smoothness" field to "10" to as a starting point for smoothing out the selection. Increase this number for a less boxy outline of your person.

8. Click "OK" to accept the settings on the Refine Edge dialog.

9. Press "Ctrl-C" on your keyboard to copy the selected person from your photo.

10. Open the photo into which you want to paste your person.

11. Press "Ctrl-V" on your keyboard to paste the person into the new photo. Photoshop automatically creates a new layer for the person so that you can edit her without affecting the rest of the image.

12. Click the "Move" tool on the toolbar, click the person and drag her to the location in the photo where you want her to appear. Apply any additional formatting and, when you are satisfied, click "Layer" and click "Merge Down" to merge the person with the rest of the photo.