Photoshop: Blending Images

Two-for-two! I'm enjoying this Photoshop section of the course very much, could I be biased? :) I enjoyed this project for two reasons:

1. It was simple.
2. The result was a clean, beautiful, and appealing image (in my opinion, at least).

The steps I took to create this image:

1. Found three images of Lisbon on Google Images.
2. Created a 600x300 and pasted each of the three images into it, scaling them down to fit just above the height constraints of the canvas size.
3. Moved one image to the left, one image to the center, and one image to the right side of the document.
4. Added a layer mask to the left side layer (it was above the centered layer in the layer stack) and used the black-to-transparent gradient tool in the layer mask to achieve a smooth transparency blend.
5. Used the same technique in the center layer (which was above the right side layer in the layer stack) to blend the right side of the center layer into the right side image.
6. Created the "LISBON" type layer, centered it both vertically and horizontally, control+clicked the layer, hid the layer (clicked the eye next to it in the layer panel) then pressed control+shift+C to copy merged and pasted the contents above the type layer.
7. Used blending options on the newly pasted layer (which resembles a cut out of the type layer filled with the background image) to add a low-opacity white fill, a sharp inner glow (looks similar to an inner stroke) and a black drop-shadow.

Image: