Montage

‘making a composite picture from pieces of others’

Montage 2 - Extraction tool !

Open your subject image (1) 

and select  Filter > extract. 

Using the edge highlighter tool carefully draw round the subject you wish to cut out. 

When you are finished use the fill tool to block in the selection, and then choose preview. 

The computer will then extract the image from its background, however you still have a couple of tools to use to tidy up the selection. The cleanup tool and the edge clean up allow you to tidy up the edges to produce a nice cut out. 

Once you are happy simply click OK and your image is ready to drag onto your chosen background layer (2). However be aware that most times a slightly blurred edge will result in a more believable image, this can be achieved either with the clean edge tools of the extract filter or with blur tool in the palette.

The extracted image can then be placed above any other background of your choice, but remember to ensure that the background matches the subject in all three areas - light.. colour...and scale....

These examples are the probably the easiest montage tools to use, however they still can produce excellent results. As I’ve already stated there are numerous other ways in which to create a montage, using paths and masks, but like all other processes in Photoshop use the technique which you find the easiest.