Photoshop Fireworks: Adding Fireworks To A Photo In Photoshop

Step 2: Resize And Reposition The Fireworks With Free Transform

Now that we have the fireworks photo in the same document as the photo we want to add the fireworks to, we can move the fireworks where we want them and resize them if needed, and we can do both of these things at once with Photoshop's Free Transform command. With "Layer 1" selected in the Layers palette, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) to bring up the Free Transform box and handles around the fireworks image. If you can't see the corner handles because part of your image is outside the viewable area, press Ctrl+0 (Win) / Command+0 (Mac) to fit everything on the screen. Then, to resize the image, hold down the Shift key, which will prevent you from accidentally distorting the width or height as you're resizing it, and then click and drag any of the four corner handles. To move the image around on the screen, simply click on the image and drag it with your mouse.

I'm going to reduce the size of my fireworks image and move it into the top right corner so the fireworks appear above the main part of the city:

Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) when you're done to accept the transformation.

Step 3: Change The Blend Mode Of The Fireworks Layer To "Screen"

To blend the fireworks in with the photo behind it and remove the black background behind the fireworks, all we need to do is change the blend mode of the fireworks layer to Screen. To do that, go up to the blend mode options in the top left corner of the Layers palette, click on the down-pointing arrow to the right of the word "Normal", and select "Screen" from the list:

Here's my image after changing the blend mode:

Step 4: Add A Layer Mask

With "Layer 1" still selected, click on the Add A Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

This adds a layer mask thumbnail to "Layer 1", and we can see that the layer mask, not the contents of the layer (the fireworks photo), is selected by the white highlight border around the thumbnail: