cutting out things in photoshop

to practice some photoshop before i begin work on my album cover i created a test image to experiment with techniques i will use to create my final work. I started off by opening one of my photos in photoshop!

I then found something to add to the image to practice extracting elements and blending them into other images. I found this nissan micra to stick in the mud, which will give the result some meaning by portraying my hate for these cars.

The first step was to extract the car from the image... i did this by making use of the lasso selection tool and the eraser and then used the levels editor to match the contrast. When deleting with the lasso selectrion tool i feathered the edges slightly to make sure it didn't leave any jagged edges. I also used the transform tools to scale and deform the car to get the perspective looking right, although the perspective could only modified to a certain limit so i placed the car carefully in the scene.

I then added shadows and reflections to blend the car into the scene better. To create the shadows i made a shape with the lasso selection tool then used the blur filter and eraser to make the shadow similar to the other ones in the scene. I made the reflection in the water by cutting and pasting a section of the car and using the transform tools to put it in the right place and lowered the opacity.

Then in a similar manner i added jesus.