dragging photo into blank document

[suecan]

I'm trying to follow a tutorial on sketch effects and can't get past the second step! It says to open a new document with a white background which I've done. I've made it the same size as my photo which I'm then supposed to drag into the blank document creating a layer above the white background. How do I drag the photo into the blank document? I only seem to be able to do it by dragging it from the photo bin and then it's much smaller than the blank background.
Any answers gratefully received!
Sue
PS will I ever get to the point when I can actually answer a question instead of always needing answers?!

[frank abramonte]

I'm on a mac but it should work about the same way on a PC.

" it's much smaller than "
You made the new document the same size of your photo, but it also has to be the same resolution. If not, then you will have to scale it to fit the new blank document. You can increase the size of a photo a small amount before you begin loosing quality. The percentage of enlargement would be dependent on the nature of the photograph. Hard to tell without seeing it.

You can scale it (make it larger or smaller):
Hilight the photo. If it has straight side you can uses the rectangular marquee. When the marching ants show up go to Image>Resize>Scale. At this point you can proceed to scale it.
While scaling hold down the shift key so it will scale in proportion. If you don't hold down the shift key it will distort.

"How do I drag the photo into the blank document?"
Open the photo and the blank document on your desktop.
Now select the photo using any of the selection methods. Once selected click on it with the move tool, and while holding down the mouse key, drag it onto the new blank document. At this point while it's still selected you can scale and position it the way you wish.

OR:
Once you select the photo go to Edit>Copy
Then go to the blank white document and Hilight it by clicking on the white background with the magic wand.
Once the background shows the marching ants go to Edit>Paste into. That should position hour photo in the center of the new document.

This is the same procedure I explained last week for moving your roses.
If you have problems, post back.

[ATR]

Given you have a blank document (white) and a photo with the same pixel dimension and resolution, for example 800 x 600 pixels with a resolution of 96 ppi. Look to see if your pixel dimension and resolution are actually the same. Image Menu/Resize/Image Size dialog.


Several ways to move the photo into the blank document,

1. At the top right of the window for the photo and document are three icons -, square, x. When you have one square there, then you should see both images in the Monitor at the same time. Hold down the Shift (it will center the result) as you select the Move Tool and use it to click on the photo and drag it into the blank document.

2. If those windows are not “cascaded” (two square in that cluster of icons), then you need to drag UP (holding down the Shift key for center result) from image in Photo Bin to the other image showing on the Monitor.
(Note: another way to get cascading, Windows Menu/Images/Cascade)

Some of the problem may be that you are dealing with two images of different resolution. If resizing is necessary, you could always highlight the layer, Ctrl T, followed by Ctrl 0 (that is zero) to get at the bounding box for resizing.

Let us know if any of that helped.

ATR

[JonE]

OR:
Once you select the photo go to Edit>Copy
Then go to the blank white document and Hilight it by clicking on the white background with the magic wand.
Once the background shows the marching ants go to Edit>Paste into. That should position hour photo in the center of the new document.

^^ Most likely to work best ^^