HOW TO Combine multiple layers

1 Open images

Launch Pixelmator Pro. From the welcome screen click either the ‘Open an Image from Photos’ icon or ‘Browse images on your Mac’. Here we’ve opened two iPhone sourced shots – a child on a bench and a toadstool.

2 Combine layers

Choose View > Layers > Show Layers to summon the Layers panel. Click on the foreground photo. Choose Edit > Copy. On the background shot, choose Edit > Paste. Choose View > Layers > Thumbnails for a clearer look at both layers.

3 Start selecting

Press Q to select the Quick Selection tool. Click the New button. Set Brush Size to 20%. Begin spraying over the subject. The tool should be able to recognise the outline of the subject. Selected areas will turn yellow.

4 Continue selecting

When you stop spraying, the yellow patches will turn into a selection marquee. To select more of the subject, click the Add button and continue spraying. Click Subtract and spray to remove pixels from the selection.

5 Add layer mask

Once you have made a selection, choose Format > Mask > Add Mask. The selection marquee is converted into a monochrome layer mask. The mask’s black areas make the layer’s corresponding pixels transparent.

6 Modify the mask

The edge of the selected figure may look a little jagged and some of the original background pixels may still cling to its edges. Grab the Brush tool. Set its colour to black. Spray over unwanted edge pixels to hide them.

7 Transform layer

Spray a white brush to restore missing bits of your subject. In the Layers panel, click on the layer icon (instead of the mask). Press ç+T to activate the Transform tool. Scale and rotate the subject to fit the background.

8 Add shadows

Click the ‘+’ icon in the Layers panel to add a new transparent layer. Press B to activate the Paint tool. Choose a suitable brush tip Size with a soft edge, then spray shadows onto the mushrooms to make the child interact with them.

9 Finishing touches

To place the girl in a forest, we pasted a tree picture on to a new layer. We then added a mask to the toadstool layer and applied a black brush tip to the mask to reveal some of the forest on the background layer.