My son's class assignment required combining multiple images into one scene. He's 8. I expected disaster but learned that photomontage basics are more accessible than I thought when you skip the technical jargon.

The Assignment Reality

His teacher wanted students to create an impossible scene—themselves in a location they've never visited. My son chose to put himself on Mars. We had three photos: him in the backyard, a NASA Mars surface image, and a picture of stars.

We used Photopea, a free browser-based tool that mimics Photoshop. No installation, no cost, and it autosaves to the cloud.

Step-by-Step What Worked

Getting Him Out of the Background

The selection tools were too fiddly for his motor skills. Instead, I had him stand against our white garage door in bright daylight. In Photopea, the magic wand removed the background in two clicks. This single choice—controlling the source photo—eliminated hours of frustration.

Placing Elements

He dragged his cutout onto the Mars image. It looked ridiculous—wrong size, floating, colors didn't match. We tackled one issue at a time:

• Resize until it looked proportional—he eyeballed it, which worked fine
• Add a shadow layer beneath him, set to 40% opacity and blurred 15 pixels
• Adjust his layer's color temperature to match the reddish Mars tint using the hue/saturation slider

The Details That Mattered

Edge feathering made the biggest difference. His cutout had a harsh outline that screamed fake. Feathering the selection by 3 pixels before cutting him out would've helped, but we fixed it afterward using a 2-pixel feather on the eraser tool, gently softening his edges.

The star layer went on top, set to screen blending mode. He didn't understand why—just that it made stars show up without blocking everything underneath.

What Failed

Trying to teach layer masks to an 8-year-old was pointless. We just erased parts we didn't want. Non-destructive editing means nothing when you're focused on finishing before dinner. He also couldn't match lighting direction—his shadow points the wrong way, but nobody in third grade noticed.

Time Investment

The whole project took 90 minutes, including me explaining things badly and him getting distracted. An adult who knew the software could've done it in 15 minutes, but watching him problem-solve was worth the extra time.