Step by step Light, camera, action!

Discover how to bring inanimate objects to life with simple photoshop compositing skills

01 Select, copy and Paste

In Expert mode, open images lamp01-07 and go to lamp02. Grab the Polygonal Lasso tool. Make a rough selection over the wall in the top right corner then hit Ctrl+c. Go to Lamp01 and Ctrl+v to paste. Grab the Move tool and drag the piece into place.

02 add an arm

Go to Lamp07 and make a rough selection of the ‘arm’ then copy and paste it into Lamp01. Move it into place then add a layer mask. Grab the Brush tool, set colour to black and use a soft-edged brush to hide parts of the layer that would be behind the other elements.

03 Perfect the blend

Next we can perfect the mask with more precise painting. Black hides, and white reveals. Zoom in close and paint to reveal or hide the layer where necessary. Use ] and [ to resize the brush as you paint, and Shift-click to paint a straight line between two points.

04 build the Shoulder

Go to Lamp06. Grab the Quick Selection tool and paint over the bottom part of the lampshade. Click Refine Edge and increase Smooth and Radius. Copy and paste it into the main image. Hit Ctrl+t to resize, then paint a layer mask to blend it, creating a shoulder.

05 Paint in Shadows

Hit Ctrl+j to copy the shoulder. Highlight the lower layer, delete the layer mask and mask it to make a new shoulder behind the first. Add a new layer above the ‘Background’ layer. Alt-click to sample a shadow area then paint in shadows where the arm meets shoulder.

06 build the body

Copy and paste in the ‘eyes’. Then make a selection of the ‘hand’ in lamp02, paste it in, transform it to fit and blend with a mask. Repeat for the other hand. Next, make a new layer. Use the Spot Healing and Clone tool (set to ‘Sample All Layers’) to tidy any messy areas.