Help blending, fanding layers or pictures together

[apw63]

I have searched the forums and could not find anything I thought would help. I made this picture of me and my brothers as an x-mass gift, for our mother. I used the layer mask and painted the extra parts of the pictures out of the waterfall. What I would like to do, is blend or fade the bottom of each picture into the waterfall. If anyone has a way to do this, could you please let me know? I tried a soft brush and the eraser tool, but no luck. I have saved the progress through out this project. I can go back to almost any point or start over if I need to. I have included the pictures that I used to create the gift. I'm using cs2

[Panpan]

Hi apw63

Here's one way to do it.

• Put each torso on a separate layer.
• For each head, create a mask (click the mask icon at the bottom of the layers tab).
• Press D to make black the foreground color.
• Use the foreground-to-transparent gradient tool. While pressing the shift key (to make the gradient direction vertical), create a gradient starting a little below the torso to about the eyes.
• With the mask selected, use Image>Adjutments>Brightness/contrast to control the opacity (brightness) and the abruptness of the gradient (contrast).
• You can refine the effect further by painting on the mask with a black (hide) or white (reveal) brush.

The second image is the headshot with the mask applied. The third is the mask used to create the effect.

Pierre

[mistermonday]

Place the image of the person(s) you want to insert onto a layer above the background. On that new layer click the Add Mask Layer button at the bottom of the palette. The mask should be white. Now Ctrl click on the person to select him/her. Then select the gradient tool - choose the Linear Gradient and Black to White. Now place the cursor at the bottom of the person and Click and drag the cursor from the bottom of the person to the top. You can play with exactly where you start and end but the net effect is that where the mask is black, the image on the top layer will be masked out and you will just see the bottom layer which will fade as the mask gets whiter.
Regards, MM

[apw63]

I did some more playing around on my own and used the opacity of the brush tool and got these results. It took some time to do. I will try the methods that have suggested tomorrow. Maybe yours is an easier way. Again thank you both very much. I will post the finished project for some welcomed constructive criticism. (Good or bad)

[apw63]

This is how far I have gotten so far. I believe this is about as good as my skill will get me. I like to results so far. The only part that I'm a little iffy on is my oldest brother. He would be the one at the top of the picture. I can’t seem to get him to what I feel is right. There maybe nothing I can do, considering the position he is in. I wanted to use pictures taken of use together. If anyone has any suggestions please feel free.