How to create collage-type photos?

GadgetRick

Ok, on a couple of jobs I have coming up I thought it would be neat to create a collage-type photo. One is for a 2 year old and another is for a TKD school. I've seen some people make these kinds of images but I'm not sure how to go about creating them. Anyone know where I can learn how to do this?

Thanks.

CKjeep

do you have Photoshop? If so check out Youtube for Tuts on Masking. If you don't like the monotone Tuts check out "you suck at photoshop"

GadgetRick

CKjeep wrote: »

do you have Photoshop? If so check out Youtube for Tuts on Masking. If you don't like the monotone Tuts check out "you suck at photoshop"

I do have it, just never seem to be able to master masking. Guess I'll be spending some time on YouTube...

Thanks.

austinado16

I started doing them for our gymnastics team last season and wound up doing about 10 of them, plus some other's for the gym, and then printing them at 16" x 20" via Costco.

I was doing them in Photoshop Elements 7, and it was a learn-by-doing sort of thing. Be patient with the learning curve, and I think if you play around for a few hours, you'll start getting some results that you're happy with. It's sort of all about doing the project in layers, so that each image or thing you do is like a seperate sheet of paper, laid on a base sheet of paper. That allows you to modify just the layer that you want to work with, without affecting other layes.

Scott293

I just made a couple collages today.

#1


#2


All you need is CS4 or higher and use photomerge from a select photos you shoot. Just play around and you can have some fun.

austinado16

Here's a couple that I did last fall. This is my 1st one:


Here's the 2nd one I did:


Here's kind of a crazy one I did for my daughter. I did a couple versions of this one, including a more tame version that has a fade of the Gym's sign as the background, instead of the universe.


These were done in Photoshop Elements 7.

GadgetRick

austinado16 wrote: »

Here's a couple that I did last fall. This is my 1st one:


Here's the 2nd one I did:


Here's kind of a crazy one I did for my daughter. I did a couple versions of this one, including a more tame version that has a fade of the Gym's sign as the background, instead of the universe.


These were done in Photoshop Elements 7.

You don't have the steps to do this do you? I've got Photoshop and this is exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for.

Thanks.

austinado16

The "steps" would go on and on, if I were to right them down, and I haven't played with an older version of PS that I have, so it might be different than the PSE7 that I used.

Plus, I'm no pro, so the way I did these is probably either wrong, or it's too slow/combersome as compared to someone who actually knows what they're doing.

But, it goes something like this (for me):
-Select the new tab and in the pop-up window, I gave the dimensions for the final poster (16x20) and the resolution of 450dpi. That gave me a base layer that PSE calls a background. Everything you see in my posters is a different layer (like a piece of paper) stacked on top of that background.

-On the first 2 posters, I played with coloring and fading in the background, so that's how I got that shaded tone.

-Each photo is a cut-out from an actual photo, and I used the laso tool and "drew" around the image I wanted, clicked on the laso'd area once I'd come full circle around the image, and that makes the laso high-lighted. I then click on the icon that's used for moving/sliding images, and then slide the laso'd portion of my image over onto the background.

-The imported image becomes a new layer "floating" on the background. It can now be slid all over the background, enlarged, shrunk, tilted, faded so the backgrouind color comes through slightly, rotated, etc.

-Then I used the eraser tool, blew up the image so it was huge on my screen, and erased my jagged edges that were created with the laso tool, until I had close smooth edges. This is where a person who knows how to better use the software would have better info for you. But because I was blowing these up so large, I wanted my edges to be really good......so I did them by hand.

-There are highlight, 3D, emboss, and other effects that can be used on each image in order to make them pop more, or have a shadow that they float on, or whatever you want them to do. You'll see a bunch of that kind of stuff in each photo in my posters.

-Once you have a bunch of images layered on the background, you can work on them individually, even changing the order that they are stacked, for example, if you have one photo over another, but want the lower photo to come up to the front, etc. You'll have a list of all the layers over on the right in your PS screen. So you click on the layer you want to work on, and then go to the actual poster and work on that layer. Or, you can just click on what image you want to work on, and work on it.

Anyway, that's how I did it. It was just a million hours of clicking buttons on the screen and seeing what they did. Doing text is the same way. It justt becomes another layer that can be slid around, rotated, screwed, etc.

For me, they were very time consuming. Those first 2 probably took about 15hrs each. The one for my daughter, with that vault sequence, probably took 25hrs. Others that I did, took maybe 5-10hrs depending on how complex they were. They were all different, and the designs were unique to each girl's personality, style, look, etc., so they were very personal to each girl.....in other words, I didn't just hammer out 10 posters in cooky-cutter fashion. That's part of what made them take so long.

Here's one I did for a girl who's parents wouldn't allow individual photos of her to be taken. She was the star of our team and it would have been a shame for her not to get a poster, so this one is more basic, and uses the individual "team" photo I took of her, and then other team photos that I took at the end of each meet we attended. I gave all the team photos a sepia treatment to make them sort of drop out, and make her more important in the photo:


I'd suggest doing something really simple, just to get your feet wet. It makes for a less frustrating learning process. Here are a couple of my practice runs. These for the gym walls, to give the girls an atta-girl that everyone could see. I wound up doing 4 of these (bars, floor, beam, vault) and in each one I practiced doing fades on the background, changing colors, writing and modifying text, copying and pasting and resizing and sliding photos, modifying photos with shadows and frames, and all the other basics that I thought I would need to do posters for real.

colourbox

austinado16 wrote: »

-Each photo is a cut-out from an actual photo, and I used the laso tool and "drew" around the image I wanted, clicked on the laso'd area once I'd come full circle around the image, and that makes the laso high-lighted. I then click on the icon that's used for moving/sliding images, and then slide the laso'd portion of my image over onto the background...

-Then I used the eraser tool, blew up the image so it was huge on my screen, and erased my jagged edges that were created with the laso tool, until I had close smooth edges. This is where a person who knows how to better use the software would have better info for you. But because I was blowing these up so large, I wanted my edges to be really good......so I did them by hand.

Just a note to anyone who wants to do this and also has Photoshop CS5...the Quick Selection and Refine Edge features will cut down the time to do this by an immense amount while also increasing the precision and detail of the edge. In Photoshop CS3/4 you have a lesser version of Refine Edge, but it's still helpful.

Here is a tutorial:
http://www.photoshopcafe.com/cs3/qs.htm

GadgetRick

Thanks so much! I'll have to give this a try...

shphotos

Here are some examples of posters I have done for soccer and volleyball. My process in photoshop is similar to austinado16, except that once I have a "lassoed" image I copy, then paste onto the background. I also like the "marquee tool" (the dotted line rectangle or oval tool) for pictures where I can't cut around the athlete (happens in volleyball when the player is behind the net). I am also learning as I go and each set of posters gets a little more interesting. Once I have a basic idea and have selected photos, I probably spend 1/2 hour on each poster. Start with something simple. I got ideas by typing "sports poster" into the SmugMug search. Feel free to look at others I have done at shphotos.smugmug.com (gallery is called "sports posters")

GadgetRick

Nice OOB work on the last one.

Scott293

This is a couple I did last year.

#1


#2


#3

austinado16

Just checked out that tutorial. Thanks for posting that.

I just did a practice run to see if it was available in PSE7. It is. It's the "Quick Selection Tool," 3rd tool down on that left side tool bar, in the right row. I clicked on it, and then right clicked to get it's other options and selected "Quick Selection Tool" instead of the "Brush Selection Tool"......just to try that version out.

It becomes a brush diameter that you can push around on the photo and that skids the dashed selection lines to the edges of what you're attempting to highlight. In the upper left top tool bar area, are 3 different brush options that allow you to push your selected area around, or, to push what you've selected "back" as in, de-select it, like if you've pushed to far. You can also change the diameter of the brush (right next to those 3 brush function icons) in order to make smaller or larger changes in what you're selecting. So blowing up the girl in the diving photo, I could select a small diameter brush and then choose her fingers and hair strands, etc.

Once I had her outlined, I could push and pull the outline as needed using a tiny brush size. But then at the top tool bar, there's a "Refine Edge" tab that can be clicked. That opens a tool bar that allows you to blur the edge you've created, or move the entire edge inward or outward, etc., in order to make a better cut-out around the object.

Anyway, below is a photo I did for this diver the other night, using my old school, quick lasso, cut, paste, blow up, and erase the edge method. But I was able to do just one image of her tonight in less time.....and that was just my first learning attempt. I'm going to start using this new method and will hopefully get faster.

BTW, I had this image printed out at 8x10 for the girl today and it looked fantastic. It's actually high res enough that it could be 20x30 without a problem, and on the computer screen, water drops and the stitching on her shirt are clear and crisp.

ian408

Some good looking collages in the thread. Nice work everyone