I am trying to make a collage. I have a picture of a house in the background, but want to cut a shape like a cloud out of family picture to put into the collage. I have Elements v5. I can not find where the shape tool is located or how to bring the tool up. I am not sure that is the correct tool so that I could put a cloud around a family so that I can cut it out. Appreciate any help.

You can use your pen tool and draw a cloud shape around the family group. Load the cloud shape as a selection then use the selection as a mask. Be sure to draw well outside the detail of the people. After creating the mask, use a relatively big gaussian blur on the Mask to soften the edges of the cloud shape. If you mess up, delete the mask and try again.

Hi Swampy.
I have used Elements to enhance, colorize pics and the web. Mask is new to me.
The pen tool - I think you mean pencil, I did use the pencil and circle the family. Then I went to Edit to copy/cut the choice to a layer. I am not sure where to find a mask. Please clarify.
Thanks.

Peril, If you were able to copy the selection to a new layer then you have effectively achieved the same thing as a mask. You have isolated the people from the background.

I don't use Elements, so I'm not sure what tools and capabilities you have. You could also draw the cloud using the eliptical marquee tool to draw a series of overlapping circles as in my sample below.

Thanks. I will experiment with that.

Hello

I am new to this forum and new to CS3. I have been using Elemments for about a year. I want to create a collage using my daughters gymanstic pictures (3 to 4 pics) I no nothing about feathering which seems to be the way to go. I am looking for someone to show or list the steps in doing this. Will pay for time. Can anyone help me?

Do you mean that you want to feather the edges of the photos where they overlap? If so, select the photo with the marquee tool, or control click on the eye symbol. Go the menu item "Select>Feather". From the menu go to "Select>Inverse" to invert the selection. You'll need to experiment with the number of pixels to feather, since it will depend on the size and resolution of your photo. Press delete to remove the area outside of the selection. It will be feathered by the number of pixels that you previously selected.

You can also make a selection,add a layer mask then gaussian blur the layer mask. Also you can move the layer mask to fine tune your work.
Ray

Thank you so much for your response. I am using CS3 and the marquee tool is rectangular tool (within that tool their are different ones to choose from which one) whick allows me to put a rectangular around my daugters head. I want to select her body and put it on a flag. I have 4 photos that I would like to appear on the flag in different opacities.

When I do make the selection I am not seeing feather under the select menu.

Hope you can help
Thank you
Jeannie

The quick selection tool is new to me. Is that something I can use

In CS3, the feathering option has been moved to the "Refine Selection" palette. Once you have made a selection and have the marching ants, look in the horizontal "options bar" (under the program's drop down menus). There is a button there for bringing up the Refine Selection palette. Turn on your tool tips (Preferences) and hover over stuff to see what it is.

Good to know Swampy. I haven't been able to afford the upgrade to CS3, so I am still on CS2. :bawling:

Someday ... :grin: