Selection - Putting an image inside a selection

Step 1 : Open two images in Photoshop -- one like the eye above. I will make the photo of of Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor (top) appear inside the pupil of the eye.

Step 2 : Choose the Magnetic Lasso Tool. You can see above where it can be found on the left panel of Photoshop. Click to select it.

Or you can choose the Pen Tool which is far superior for the job.

Step 3 : Begin clicking around the inside of the pupil of the eye an continue till you come back to the first point. Do it slowly. If you click a point wrongly hit the delete button on your keyboard and continue again.
Step 4 : You can see how I have clicked slowly around the pupil. The red arrow points to the Magnetic Lasso. The blue arrows point to the points where I have clicked.

Step 5 : When you come back to where you began clicking a small 'o' will form near the Magnetic Lasso Tool. See where the red arrow points to. Step 6 : As soon as you click on the point where you started from, the selection turns into a column of 'marching ants' as above. Step 7 : Hit the DELETE key on the keyboard and the pupil will disappear i.e. it will be deleted. Press CTRL+D to deselect. Step 8 : Look at the Layers/Channels/Paths pallette at the rightside bottom of photoshop. Double click the 'Background' layer.
Step 9 : As soon as you double click the 'Background' layer this dialogue box opens. Click ok. This needs to be done as the Background layer cannot be edited. Now it will be editable Step 10 : The 'Background' changes to Layer o. It is now editable. Step 11 : Now click the Move Tool. You can see it on the top left panel of Photoshop.

Step 12 : Click the Move Tool to select it. Now drag Kareena's photo over the eye image while keeping SHIFT key on the keyboard press. It will land propotionately and exactly in the middle of the eye image. Note also that the eye image is smaller than Kareena's photo.

Step 13 : Kareena Kapoor's image, which is larger now completely covers the pupil.

Step 14 : Press ALT on your keyboard and grab the Move Tool again. Click and drag on one of the corner handles to resize Kareena's photo.

Step15 : If you cannot see the corner handles, than the 'Show Tranform Controls' box on the top panel is not ticked. Tick it. If you are using Photoshp 7 you will find 'Bounding Box' in the same place. Tick it likewise. You will then find the corner handles showing.

Step 16 : After you have repositioned the image to your satisfaction click the Move Tool or any other tool on the left panel. This dialogue box opens. Click 'Apply'.

Step 17 : Press SHIFT+CTRL+[ on your keyboard and Kareena's photo will go behind the pupil.

A longer way to do it is to go to Layer>Arange>Send to Back (above)

Step 18 : Use the Move tool to reposition Kareena's image futher if necessary. And, you are done.

There is another way to do this. In this case you need not cut out the pupil. Just drag and reposition Kareena's photo over the pupil as shown above.

Step 1 : Go to the Layers/Channels/Paths pallette and click where the white arrow points to. A pop up box will appear when you click there.

Step 2 : This popup appears.

Step 2 A : A closer look at the options available. I have chosen 'Screen' as it works here. You may have to give a different setting with the image you use. Most times 'Overlay' and 'Soft Light' works well.

Step 3 : Now click the Add Layer Mask button shown by the red arrow and small white hand.

Step 4 : You will not notice any change in your image, but in the Layers/Channels/Paths pallette you will find a white box next to the layer thumbnail. It is the Layer Mask.

Step 5 : Now click the Brush Tool from the flyout. Note you can make the tip of the brush bigger or smaller with the bracket keys [ ].

Step 6 : With the Brush Tool gently wipe away the portion of Kareena's image falling outside the pupil.

And there you are.