Project 1. Watch That First Step The Grand Canyon is awe-inspiring, majestic, and relatively untouched by the growth of development in the Southwest. Until now, that is. What would the Grand Canyon look like if it were lined with houses? That first step out the door could be quite steep!  I don't want just any houses in my canyon. I'm partial to the Stick-Style Victorian homes that line the Pacific Heights district in San Francisco. Because they're situated on an incline, they should blend in well with the hiking trails of the Grand Canyon (see Figure 7.1). Figure 7.1. Our travel shots: the Grand Canyon and San Francisco. 
Download the Grand Canyon image from the book's website and the Pacific Heights houses from www.shutterstock.com, image 41033. All the projects in this chapter involve having good selection skills. If you haven't had much practice at making selections, see Appendix B,"Paint Shop Pro X in a Nutshell," for tips. Let's start by considering where we're going to position the houses on the canyon wall. I want to take advantage of the people walking along the trail. If we place them in front of the houses, it will add an element of realism to our completely unreal final image. 1. | Select the rock outcropping and people on the trail (see Figure 7.2).
Figure 7.2. Grabbing rocks and people to use later. 
| 2. | Copy the selection into a new layer. Click Selections, Promote Selection to Layer. Alternatively, click Edit, Copy and then Edit, Paste into New Layer. You can even click Edit, Copy; create a new raster layer; and then click Edit, Paste. Just like the choice of tools in making a selection, you have a choice in how you copy and paste it.
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Don't worry about that new layer just yet. It's going to come in handy soon. House Relocation Service The Grand Canyon is ready for development. We need to move northwest to San Francisco to prepare the houses for relocation. 3. | Click the image of the houses to make it active; then use your favorite selection technique to select the three houses in the middle (see Figure 7.3).
Figure 7.3. Preparing the three middle houses for moving day. 
| 4. | Select Edit, Copy to copy the house selection.
| 5. | Activate the image of the canyon, and then select Edit, Paste As New Layer. This copies the three houses onto their own layer in the canyon image (see Figure 7.4).
Figure 7.4. Pasting the houses into the canyon. 
| 6. | Click the Pick tool to move the houses into position and scale them to suit the backdrop.
You now have all the key components in one image, but there's still a lot of work to be done to pull it all together.
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Where'd Everybody Go? The houses are in position, but they look like they're hanging over the rock instead of integrated into the backdrop. The neighborhood also looks awfully devoid of people. Remember the outcropping we prepared before we moved on to the houses? It's time for it to make an appearance. 7. | Click the outcropping layer in the Layers palette. Drag that layer above the house layer. The outcropping appears to magically cover the edge of the houseline (see Figure 7.5).
Figure 7.5. The outcropping hides all manner of mistakes. 
| 8. | If you still have a selection around the outcropping, as I do, click Selections, None.
The houses now look more at home in their new locale. Even better, the outcropping covers the top of the car that accidentally got selected along with the houses. The people who were on the hiking trail earlier now appear to be walking past the houses. What's left now is some clean-up.
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Sweeping Up the Debris Take a good look around the image as it now appears. There are a few things that stand out. First of all, the roof of the house on the right has some power lines over it. 9. | Use the Clone Brush to capture an area of pristine rooftop and brush it over the power lines (see Figure 7.6).
Figure 7.6. The Grand Canyon must have underground power lines. 
| 10. | I also don't like the way the roofline meets the canyon wall. I want the houses to appear to be set back into the wall so they blend in better. There's an easy way to select just the bit of canyon we need to cover this up.
Change the opacity of the house layer so you can still see the houses, but can also see the canyon layer underneath. To do this, be sure the house layer is active in the Layers palette; then change the Opacity setting at the top of the palette.
| 11. | Activate the canyon layer by clicking it in the Layers palette. Then click the Freehand Selection tool and draw a selection around the area of the canyon wall that should cover the roofline (see Figure 7.7).
Figure 7.7. Making the houses transparent to guide your selection. 
| 12. | Click Edit, Copy to copy the selection. After you've done this, activate the house layer and create a new raster layer in the Layers palette. By activating the house layer first, the new layer is created on top of it. Activate the new raster layer, and then click Edit, Paste to paste the selection into the new layer.
| 13. | Return to the house layer and change the opacity back to 100%.
I'm pretty happy with how the houses blend into the canyon now, but the lighting is a bit off.
| 14. | Click Adjust, Brightness and Contrast, Brightness/Contrast. Lower the brightness and contrast a bit to blend into the surrounding environment (see Figure 7.8).
Figure 7.8. Adjusting the lighting on the houses. 
In Figure 7.9, you can see the final image. I just hope those two kids in the foreground don't have to climb that hill every day to get to school!
Figure 7.9. Victorian Row at the Grand Canyon. 
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