Photoshop Tutorial: Tearing A Photo To Reveal Another

Step 5: Add A Layer Mask On "Layer 1"

Click on "Layer 1" in the Layers palette to select it. Then click on the Add A Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

This adds a layer mask to "Layer 1", and it also adds a layer mask thumbnail on the layer in the Layers palette:

The layer mask itself, rather then the contents of the layer, is now selected, and we know that by the white highlight border around the layer mask thumbnail.

Step 6: Paint With Black On The Mask To Blend The Edges Of The Image In With The Background

We want the edges around our image to blend in with the black background, and we're going to accomplish that by painting around the edges with black on our layer mask. We need the Brush Tool to paint with, so either select it from the Tools palette or press B on your keyboard:

We want to paint with black, so press X on your keyboard to swap your Foreground and Background colors again, which makes black your Foreground color. Then, with a large soft-edge brush, paint along the edges of the photo to blend them in with the background. Because we're painting on the layer mask, not the actual layer, anywhere we paint with black will hide the image. It looks like we're painting directly on the image itself because we're painting with black and the background is black, but if the background was a different color, you'd see that we're really just hiding the image as we paint on the layer mask.

You can change the size of your brush with the left and right bracket keys on your keyboard (the left bracket key makes the brush smaller and the right one makes it larger), and to make sure your brush has a soft edge, hold down your Shift key and press the left bracket key a few times (pressing the right bracket key while holding Shift makes the brush harder). Then paint around the edges to blend them in with the black background.

Here's my image after painting around the edges:

Step 7: Colorize The Image

With "Layer 1" still selected, hold down Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) and click on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Then select Hue/Saturation from the list that appears:

By holding down Alt/Option. this tells Photoshop to bring up the New Layer dialog box before adding the adjustment layer. Click inside the checkbox to the left of the Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask option to select it. By selecting this option, the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer is going to affect only the layer directly below it ("Layer 1") and will have no effect on any other layers. This isn't so important at the moment, but it will be once we drag our second photo into the image. Click OK to exit out of the dialog box, and the "Hue/Saturation" dialog box will appear.

Select the Colorize option in the bottom right corner of the dialog box, then drag the Hue slider to select the color for your image, keeping an eye on your image as you drag. I'm going to set my Hue to a value of about 38:

Click OK when you're happy with the color you've chosen to exit out of the dialog box. Here's my image after colorizing it: