Now that we've created our background effect, let's add it to the same photo we created it from! This part is optional of course, but if you want to follow along, here's how to do it.

Photo Backgrounds: Step 1: Move The Photo Layer To The Top Of The Layers Palette

Currently, our background is in front of our photo, which really isn't where you'd expect a background to be. We need to move our photo in front of the background, which means we need to move the photo's layer above our two pattern layers in the Layers palette. Our photo is on "Layer 1", so click on "Layer 1" in the Layers palette to select it:

Here's a quick keyboard shortcut for moving a layer directly to the top of the layer stack. With the layer selected, just press Shift+Ctrl+] (Win) / Shift+Command+] (Mac). Photoshop will jump the layer above all the others and move it directly to the top of the Layers palette:

The photo now becomes visible in the document window once again.

Photo Backgrounds: Step 2: Resize The Photo With Free Transform

Press Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) to once again bring up Photoshop's Free Transform command, this time around the photo. Hold down Shift+Alt (Win) / Shift+Option (Mac) and drag any of the four corner handles inward to make the photo smaller, revealing the background behind it. Holding the "Shift" key constrains the width and height proportions of the photo as you drag, and holding "Alt/Option" tells Photoshop to resize the photo from its center:

Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) when you're happy with the size of your photo to accept the transformation and exit out of the Free Transform command.

Photo Backgrounds: Option 3: Add A Drop Shadow

To complete the effect, I'm going to add a drop shadow to my photo so it stands out a bit more against the background. Click on the Layer Styles icon at the bottom of the Layers palette and select Drop Shadow from the list of layer styles that appears:

This brings up Photoshop's Layer Style dialog box set to the Drop Shadow options in the middle column. Change the Angle of the drop shadow to 120° and lower the Opacity down to around 60%:

Click OK in the top right corner of the Layer Style dialog box to exit of it, and with that, we're done! Here, after adding a drop shadow to my photo, is the final result:

And there we have it!

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