To use many of the more advanced functions in PAINT.NET, you have to understand layers and how to use them. Understanding LAYERS really is the secret to many things, please try your best to follow the explanation.
This is the secret to many of the other functions within paint.net You may need to read and try this a few times before it sinks in, it can be a new concept to many. It can also be quite difficult for beginners to understand. Once you have mastered LAYERS, you will be capable of doing most of the slightly more complex edits listed further on. Stick with it! This is the secret to better images, super skies, the balancing of tones, handling wide dynamic range images, composite images and more. What follows is my use and understanding of LAYERS in simple terms. Prior to my stroke, I used PHOTOSHOP for LAYERS, then 'adjustment LAYERS' were introduced, and you could use masks too, but describing the process is lengthy - try it, did you give up half way through?
A reasonably simple description of using LAYERS within PAINT.NET follows. Writing or explaining something in detail can often complicate things. We will look at a practical example of how layers fit together then we will mirror this using PAINT.NET
For this example, I've created digital images to represent our BACKGROUND layer (land) and our LAYER 1 (sky).
We will perform a physical example of layers, a physical example to help you understand layers better and how they work. To perform a physical example you should source an A4 sized piece of cardboard or paper to form our BACKGROUND layer, and an A4 sized piece of cellophane or clear plastic to form our SKY layer. An A4 filing folder would do as a substitute for cellopane or clear plastic as would any material or any A4 sized sheet so long as it's transparent. Yes, this sounds like hassle and hard work but I gaurantee you will understand "layers" at the end of it.
1.
Think of a simple photograph on a piece of A4 sized cardboard or paper, 2/3rds of it land (brown), the remaining top 1/3rd, unpainted or clear of any colour. A sample is shown below. This will become our BACKGROUND layer.
An example of our BACKGROUND layer, land only in this example.
2.
Think of our second image that must be on A4 cellophane or clear plastic with a light blue sky occupying the top 1/3 of the frame with 2/3 rds below being unpainted or uncoloured. You may have difficulty writing or drawing on our A4 clear sheet, but an indelible pen is ideal.
An example of our 'layer 1', sky only in this example.
3.
Placing the LAYER 1 sheet of cellophane ON TOP of the sheet marked BACKGROUND layer is like giving us a new, combined image, a final image often called a 'composite' image. A 'composite' image could be made from 2 or more images and PAINT.NET supports more than one layer. In our example, because the top layer is on cellophane, it allows the bottom layer to show through.
So, this is our final result.
An example of our final image, just for this example. We have combined LAYER 1 (our example sky) with the BACKGROUND (our example land).
You can rename your photos within PAINT.NET but it might help to rename them beforehand. For this example, I renamed the background as BACKGROUND layer and the image of the sky as LAYER 1.You can also drag or even resize photos or images within paint.net using the MOVE tool (more on that later) but the whole thing is easier when you are using images of the same size.
Seen these nice pics of 'grissled' old characters appearing against a colourful or conveniently matched background? The chances are it's a composite photograph. Many togs have been awarded distinctions or won competitions/exhibitions for using this technique. You can do it for FREE, chances are, they didn't.
WE WILL NOW MIRROR THIS USING PAINT.NET
4. First, we should DOWNLOAD our two images, the BACKGROUND and the SKY. They will be saved in DOWNLOADS for now.
If you have downloaded both files correctly, the files needed in our PAINT.NET demo will be in your DOWNLOADS directory and should be loaded from there.
Now load PAINT.NET then open your photo to serve as the BACKGROUND layer. Use 'File / Open' from the menu options at the top.
5. Next we need to load our SKY photo as LAYER 1 Use MENU option 'Layers / Import From File' and load our SKY LAYER as shown below. Its important you use the menu options LAYER / IMPORT FROM FILE to load Layer 1. Do not use any other menu options that may result in replacing the BACKGROUND.
You can see at the right hand side of the PAINT.NET screen, under the heading 'Layers', small images representing our Layer 1 and Background photographs. Notice the SKY or 'Layer 1' is on top. This becomes important later on.
We now want to let the Background bleed through the clear part of the Sky. This is the magic part.
6. Next we double click the topmost small image at the right hand side of PAINT.NET (the small images under the heading 'Layers'.) A new window should open in the centre of PAINT.NET as shown below.
We have a choice of BLEND modes, but we will select MULTIPLY for our needs. Leave OPACITY for now. Having selected 'Multiply', select OK. We should see a photo containing LAYER 1 and the BACKGROUND layer, a combination of two photos into one.
If you have done this successfuly, you have used PAINT.NET to make a 'composite' image - well done! Free of charge too. Now if you want to SAVE the image, we must first FLATTEN the combination of two images into one. Select menu option Image / Flatten as shown.
The FLATTENED image, represented by just the one small photograph on the right hand side of PAINT.NET, can now be saved using MENU OPTION File / Save As, not Save (Shown below. Follow the prompts and save as a JPG.) You should also note that under 'History' at the top/right of PAINT.NET, we see a record of what we have done, which is combine two photographs into one.
A screenshot showing the DOWNLOADS directory has been selected to save the file in. I have named the file in the 'SAVE AS' operation as COMBO1
A screenshot showing my SAVE AS option
Ideally, you should perform this exercise a few times until you can do this without following the instructions, but well done. This 'blending' or 'merging' or 'combining' really is the secret to advanced editing.
