Have you ever wanted to tear someone out of a photo, but you can’t because it’s a digital photo? Does just cropping your boyfriend or girlfriend out of your facebook profile picture really do it justice? The answer is no. However, there is a better way to digitally remove someone and still show the angst of a torn up photo. This simple tutorial will show you how to do that.

(This also works if you just want a realistic torn paper effect…)

The Tutorial

First things first, you need the image that you want tear up. Since I don’t have anyone I hate right now, I’m going to use a picture from Halloween two years ago. That’s my friend Jake the ostrich jockey, and we’re going to tear him out of this photo.

Once you have your image selected, download this torn paper pack, and open it on your computer. Browse through the torn edges and pick the one you like the best. For this example we are using “2.psd”. Once you’ve selected both your image the torn edge that you want open them both in Photoshop.

Since the photo is tall and we are going to be tarring it vertically we need to rotate the torn edge image 90° (Image / Image Rotation / 90° CW). The next step is to set the width of the canvas (Image / Rotate Canvas) so that you can bring in your image. For this image I made the canvas 1000px wide.

Next, go to your image and press “apple + A” (on a mac) or “control + A” (on a PC) to select all, and then copy the image by pressing “apple + C” or “control + C”. Then go to the torn edge image and paste your picture by pressing “apple + V” or “control + V”.

Just a little more…

With the image layer selected click on the “PATHS” tab. There is a path named “content”. (Shown below)

If you hold the apple (on a Mac) or control (on a PC) key and click on the path thumbnail it will make a selection of the path.

By pressing the “M” key select the marquee tool. Hold down shit and select the rest of the content that you want. (See example below)

For the final step, go back to the “LAYERS” tab and click on the “Add layer mask” icon, third from the left at the bottom of the layers panel. And now, you’re done. You’ve successfully torn someone out of your life, or at least a photo.

Honoring of the “Official Launch” of this blog I though I’d start off with a torn paper pack for you to download. Check back next week for a tutorial on how to use this pack and maybe even a second pack…

download the torn paper pack…

Here it is, my new blog/portfolio. I can’t even begin to say how past due this is, but what can you do? I know that it’s this way for a lot of people, but it seems that I’ve just had enough work to keep me too busy to make my own portfolio or blog. However, if that’s not a good enough for you that’s too bad, because If nothing else it’s a good enough excuse for me, haha. Anyways, take a look at my portfolio, and let me know what you think, and come back and check the blog from time to time. Hopefully, I’ll have some good stuff for you.

The goal is to update this blog as much as possible with rants and complements on design and web development, freebies like texture packs, brushes, and design elements, and tutorials as well. I’m sure I’ll be throwing some other random things in as well, so it will be fun for everyone. I’m going to officially launch this site on Monday, March 1st. Come back and check it out then, I may have a treat for you, you never know… but seriously, I’ll have a treat so you should come back.

Disclaimer: I am not and never have I been a writer. My job is to make things look pretty.