Infinite Alchemy - www.infinitealchemy.com

BLENDING

Blending isn't really a complicated technique in graphic designing. Actually, all you need are two pictures (or more) that are closely related and BOOM you got yourself a "Blend." Now, the best way I could come up with when it comes to blending is the way I learned it. (Trust me, I've learned other ways... this is the only one that didn't give me a headache. LOL)
1.) First, take any two pictures (we'll take it slow and use ONLY two, you can use more once you get the hang of it). I'm using two action shots of WWE's Randy Orton. (Well... because he's purdy. Although, his arrogance annoys me.)

2.) The two pictures should be in two separate layers on your layer pallette. Overlap them in the position you want the two to come up once you are finished. The pictures below has 2 examples as to how you should overlap your picture (Remember, this is an example. You don't have to do it that way. You'll see once I'm finished with the tutorial, I used the first example...).
Example 1

Example 2

3.) Now that you've decided on an overlapping position, time to blend. Select the eraser tool and use a 65px or 100px airbrush (If you don't know what an airbrush is, it's the brush with the soft edges rather than the hard edges). In the picture below, it has the 100px airbrush selected. You don't have to use this size if you don't want to or if you think it's too big. For my blend, I used the 65px airbrush, because for this type of blend, 100px is too big. BUT, 100px is always good for larger blends. So remember to keep that in mind.

4.) Now, take the eraser tool, make sure the top layer is selected in your layers pallette and erase (OFF THE TOP LAYER ONLY) what you don't want on your blend. As you can see from the picture below, I've erased the portions surrounding Randy's head and his belt so you can see the part of the bottom layer that I want to show in the blend.

5.) Okay, now your probably wondering, well what about the excess parts (the stuff that hangs outside the graphic that you don't see) of my pictures? How do I get rid of that? Well, whether or not you were thinking about that, I'll tell you anyway. Select the cropping tool (see picture below). Click and drag the tool from the top left hand corner of your graphic to the bottom right hand corner of your graphic to select the entire thing. Then hit the ENTER key on your keyboard to get rid of it. You may not see the difference, but trust me, there is a difference. This makes your graphic file size a bit smaller once you save it.

6.) Okay, in all honesty, you're virtually done. Just add a few effects here, some text there, or keep it as it is, and voila... You have yourself a blend.

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