I wasn't sure where to put this, but I thought it might fit here.

I'm having trouble making backgrounds of images transparant in my photoshop elements. Could someone please explain how?

 

Edit: How do I merge layers together?

Well if you double click on the layer a window pops up and you can make it transparent by lowering the opacity.

But how do I just fix the background to be transparant, leaving the person in the picture unharmed?

Well (if your patient enough) you can try to use the magnetic lasso tool and cut the person out and right click, Copy via layer, and put the person on a completely different layer then make the background transparent.

 

EDIT: about the edit up there^^^ Right click on a layer a click merge visible, merge down, etc.

This is sorta the same thing, but if you take the original picture, and put a blank layer underneath, you can just erase around the character. You will see the checkers where you erase.

I guess you want to make renders right? Then it depends, you can either erase the background (you have to be really patient and skillfull) or use the magnetic lasso tool, that's at least what I do. But if you're trying to make the bg transparent so that you can put another one in its place (in a tag for example) you'll have to do the things said above and work a lot with blending, or just use some techniques to turn the original bg of a picture in a new one. In tags I often erase a part of the bg (taking care not to touch the main picture) with a soft brush and then merge it with a new layer so that it'll be easier to work on the main picture. I'm not sure what you're planning but I hope I was of some help.

I guess you want to make renders right? Then it depends, you can either erase the background (you have to be really patient and skillfull) or use the magnetic lasso tool, that's at least what I do. But if you're trying to make the bg transparent so that you can put another one in its place (in a tag for example) you'll have to do the things said above and work a lot with blending, or just use some techniques to turn the original bg of a picture in a new one. In tags I often erase a part of the bg (taking care not to touch the main picture) with a soft brush and then merge it with a new layer so that it'll be easier to work on the main picture. I'm not sure what you're planning but I hope I was of some help.

 

Much help, thanks. I'm just going to have to keep trying not to chop up my picture with the magnetic lasso.