Composite

So in learning about composite, I didn't find a great tutorial I found Emma Brown! Emma taught me the basics of the program and helped get me on my feet in creating the two images above. I tried using the CS5 book only to find my usual Photoshop frustrations surfacing. Personally, I don't think the CS5 for Photographers book is for me. Its for users who are really familiar with the program so it presumes the reader knows basic Photoshop tools and terminology. In stumped me at the first step when it instructed to trace my image with the lovely pen tool. After working with the Emma I found it much easier to use the magnetic lasso than to try and navigate pen tool with its extensive anchors and handles. After referring to the pen tool, channels, and layer masks (things I'd never heard of) Evening and Shewe continue with another instruction I didn't know how to follow "I resized it to fit the full width of the image." At this point, I closed the book. I did look through the index though, and found some things I'd like to try as I get more of an idea of what I'm doing.