Photoshoppers... Help me out.

[The Bone Collector]

Forgive the size of the pic attached.

Look at the file I have opened in Photoshop below. I have 4 layers, 2 pictures. One layer is the original image, the duplicate is the editing one, with opacity edited to blend them. So... now I want to fade those two seperate images into one another. I've tried a little trick I learned way back, by putting a Layer Mask/Vector Mask down on the layer, setting the gradient to Transperent... and wacking in on... but that doesn't seem to work anymore.
Anyone have any ideas on how to do this.

Please... keep your critisism to yourself. This isn't for you guys to gawk over. Please only post if your going to help.
Thanks;
TbC

[BondJamesBond]

You need the layers to overlap if you're going to use that gradient tool.

[The Bone Collector]

You need the layers to overlap if you're going to use that gradient tool.

How would I do that?
My stupidity. Is there a way to fade then into each other without overlapping?

[BondJamesBond]

Well. You can resize the layers, or nudge'em over.

[The Bone Collector]

Erm... no dice. Next?

[Aquarius]

Just make the right image longer (add more people to it) by copying it to another layer, move the copy to left, blend it with the original (using eraser or mask) and connect both layers. Then move the left layer to top and blend it with the right, now-longer layer. You could make the left layer longer too, but it's harder because of the radial gradient on the sky.

You can remove some people by painting them with the sky color or with Stamp tool if you need or swap some of the soldiers to make it less repetitive.

[blackdevil0742]

What I do is put one of the images on the background and the other one on a layer over it and then use a soft circle eraser with low opacity and remove the sharp edge with it until they blend together.

[The Bone Collector]

Thanks aquarius, for your insight, but could you explain it in n00bs terms. Currently, my best try is the header at http://bcp08.wordpress.com/
I'm wanting perfect fade, and I've done it before... but only on a few select wallpapers that I have done.

[The Philanthropist]

Click on the single soldier layer to activate it. Go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All.

This will create a 'mask' on your layer that you can fill in. Using the gradient tool, we can fill in certain parts of this mask to get the fade effect. Hit the letter 'd' on your keyboard to reset the colours to black and white. Select the gradient tool, and set it to the defualt gradient of black and white. Applying the gradient to the image will give you the fade effect you are looking for.  You can then play with styles and sizes of the gradient to blank out certain parts of your image. The black part of the mask will hide the layer, the white part of the mask will reveal it.

NOTE: While you are doing this, the Mask of your layer will be active. To resume manipulating normally, you have to activate the layer portion of your layer. Just click the image of your layer next to the mask thumbnail in your layer palette.

[The Bone Collector]

Thanks Phil.

New question: How do I make a simple black and white image suck the white out of the image to make it Transperent? (Think Serial K!llers gun sigs)

[Biscuiteer]

Try using the magic eraser (The eraser with a star next to it, under the eraser tool - click and hold the eraser tool until a sub-menu appears, then choose the Magic Eraser) and click on any white areas you want to remove. If it starts eating away at stuff you don't want to erase, adjust its tolerance in the little toolbar on the top of the window.

[The Philanthropist]

New question: How do I make a simple black and white image suck the white out of the image to make it Transperent? (Think Serial K!llers gun sigs)

A slightly more reliable way of selecting the white of an image would be using the 'select colour range' menu.

Go to: Select>Colour Range. This will open up a small menu. under the small thumbnail, check the 'image' box. The thumbnail should now look exactly like your image. What you then do is select the eydropped tool with a '+' sign on it (right hand of this menu), and begin selecting the colour white around your image. Each click you do will select that colour for the entire image, plus or minus the value in your fuzziness. The more fuzziness, each additional selection with the eye dropper tool will give you a wide range of colour, while less fuzziness will be more specific to the colour you clicked