Fred, one way to do this is before you flatten a layered image do the magic wand again at the area you have cut out, then go to the selections at the top and select modify. You then can either expand or contract by the degree of the halo. This apears to be maybe one or two pixels thick so that should work and delete the area again.

Sheriff Jim

I want to try

Using layers to make your own picture

This process can be used for two things actually, making a transparent background and redoing a picture using layers.

The first picture we are going to use is Rays little loco (hope he doesn’t mind). The second is an industrial picture we will be using for a background. You can use any pictures you wish but for this tutorial you can use these. Copy both these and paste them in the program. They will be named image 1 and image 2 and will already be a raster image, so nothing else will need to be done for now.





Click on the train and in the Edit menu click on Copy. You can now close the train picture. The industry picture should now be highlighted as the open picture. Go to the Edit menu again and click on Paste as new layer. Your picture now should look like below.



Make sure your train layer is the one showing by checking your layer window and it should be highlighted. Now on the tool bar on the left highlight the selection tool and choose Freehand and make sure it settings are Point to point. We are now ready to start on the train. Placing the freehand tool next to the outer edge of the train, left click and draw to the next point and click again. The line will move to each click of the mouse the same as if you were tracing with a pencil. Go all the way around to where you started and then double click. You should see the marching ants around you train. (Note: If you are not happy with your outline click to undo the ants and redo, your work here will prove the looks of your final picture. Below is how the picture should look with the ants.



When satisfied with your selection, go to the Layers menu and select Invert. Now reach over on your keyboard and hit Delete. Huh, background on the train layer is gone, right? Now select none so the ants go away.



To move your train select on the tool bar the Move tool and put it where you want. To resize the train, as you want select the Deform tool, grab a corner handle and pull or push to the size you want.



Now all you have to do is flatten or merge the photo and save and you’re done. Neat huh?

Sheriff Jim

Heck, you could do just about anything with that program! It's like frickin magic!

Some I did.

Way to go Fred!