brain freeze over Layers

[mapgirl]

With the help of books, Google searches, and these forums I've managed to learn a number of great PPing techniques. But when it comes to working with Layers, my brain just shuts down. I don't know why.
So I'm hoping if I present you folks with one specific goal, your help will give me a toe in the layers door (or something--the metaphors don't quite work either ).
I have an image with two birds on a level surface. There is too much space between them for my composition. How can I eliminate some of that unwanted space and bring them closer together? I figure that's a job for layers, yes? If so, can somebody please walk me through it or direct me to a tutorial that will?
I'm using Photoshop Elements 7

Thank you!

[BuddhaPi]

Perhaps posting the image in questions and leeting some folks have a go at might help, if successful, they could then maybe give a brief synopsis of what was done to the image.

[mapgirl]

Sure. Here's a version of the image (not done with it yet).

[BuddhaPi]

something like this???



I spent less than 5 minutes on this so it's far from perfect....

open in PS, duplicate layer, select 1st layer and crop just towards the center of the image, select second layer and crop opposite, move both layers together by dragging or , I used the smudge tool to quickly hide where the layers intersected, then did 1 final crop to remove the outside black space..

not a very good explanation, but i'm a horrible teacher...

[mapgirl]

Originally Posted by BuddhaPi

something like this???



I spent less than 5 minutes on this so it's far from perfect....

open in PS, duplicate layer, select 1st layer and crop just towards the center of the image, select second layer and crop opposite, move both layers together by dragging or , I used the smudge tool to quickly hide where the layers intersected, then did 1 final crop to remove the outside black space..

not a very good explanation, but i'm a horrible teacher...

It's fine. If you don't mind, just slow down a bit and assume I know absolutely nothing (close to the truth when it comes to Layers). Somehow, the "how" parts are eluding me. I figure if I can get through something this relatively simple, I'll start to understand the basics of layers. so what do I click on, which tool do I use to select, etc.
I really appreciate this!

[edbayani]

this is a little bit harder, try to select the right duck either by pentool or by using quickmask or select the duck loosely with the lasso tool and erase the remaining bg by layer mask or simply erase it carefully with the eraser tool, use the sharpest and vary the size. you will now have a duck cut out that you can drag very near the other duck or even raise it a little, flatten. then select the reflection left on the right side and move it to align with the duck, flatten and crop the right side where the original duck is still in the image.




this is more complicated but easy to learn after you have done the 1st image. just select the two ducks and put them in separate layers. then select the necks and put them also in other separate layers and bend them by using distort, shear. then align them with the body of the ducks and erase the head of the original duck cutout. clean up the original background layer with the clone tool so any image of the ducks will be erased. again put the reflection to align with the right duck, flatten, crop and save.
this is what is wonderful about layers.

[teaking]

I know you want to use layers so this is good practice but for future thourght the liquid rescale feature in GIMP and Photoshop can be used with good results with this type of image. Normally resizing out of aspect ratio causes problems but with liquid rescale you paint on a protection mask around the birds and it will resize by affecting pixels outside the protected area giving them priority. I think you can paint on a mask for areas you do want it to affect also so by changing size protecting the birds and telling it to affect the middle strip first you can pull them together.

Results may vary but for 30 seconds of your time and all in one layer its a good starting point