What are my options here??

Pete405

Hi All... I have a quick question and wondered if anyone had any suggestions ..

What are my options to do some pictures like the ones I have provided below??
I understand that alot of you will probably say photoshop and I understand all the capabilities and control photoshop has to offer, but I am no good at it, I have a real hard time with photoshop.

Are there any programs out there that can do this in a "drag & drop" type function or something a little more user friendly than PS ??

Any help would be appreciated.

wayne861

I'm afraid you are going to have to learn selections and layers to make cards like these and use a program that supports them. The bottom card would be pretty easy, just using layers, but you would need a bit of practice to make one like the top card.

Wayne

ThatCanonGuy

I don't know of any simpler programs. A lot of power is needed for doing that stuff. Doesn't mean it's hard to do, however, you just need to learn layers and layer styles. Just exploring the program and using it a lot will really teach you a lot. I know layers enuf to do that kind of stuff, and I'm 100% self-taught. I got to know the program just by playing around with it doing this kind of stuff for fun. If you have a basic knowledge of Photoshop, layers, etc., that can take you pretty far.

Pete405

These are the answers i was afraid of...... Well, gotta start learning PS now!! Thanks guys

divamum

Check out PS tutorials on youtube - sometimes seeing it in action is really helpful. That's certainly what made the lightbulb come on for me about layers, and once I'd grasped the principle, the rest was easy

digismile

The first image requires extracting an image from a background. Generally speaking, image extraction is fairly slow and tedious, requiring both expert software and tools, plus above average skills. The shadow is also a photoshop trick that takes a bit of time (i.e. it's not automated).

If you are wanting to do this repetitively (READ: quickly), you would require additional equipment to make the process significantly easier. It would require proper lighting, a background that allows easy extraction (green screen, chroma key ...), specific software, and proper execution. In the end, the first image takes a lot of work to pull off.

The second image, however, would be a piece of cake to create a photoshop template where you drag and drop in two images. Your initial time investment is only in the background and positioning of the photos to be placed. After that, you simply keep replacing the drop-in images in just a few seconds. IMO, this is the more achievable image in the short term.

regards,

Pete405

digismile wrote: »

The first image requires extracting an image from a background. Generally speaking, image extraction is fairly slow and tedious, requiring both expert software and tools, plus above average skills. The shadow is also a photoshop trick that takes a bit of time (i.e. it's not automated).

If you are wanting to do this repetitively (READ: quickly), you would require additional equipment to make the process significantly easier. It would require proper lighting, a background that allows easy extraction (green screen, chroma key ...), specific software, and proper execution. In the end, the first image takes a lot of work to pull off.

The second image, however, would be a piece of cake to create a photoshop template where you drag and drop in two images. Your initial time investment is only in the background and positioning of the photos to be placed. After that, you simply keep replacing the drop-in images in just a few seconds. IMO, this is the more achievable image in the short term.

regards,

So basically, what your saying is that I can just have someone with some PS knowledge help me create the initial template and I can just learn how to add the pictures or even a name onto it?? That doesn't sound to bad

MomaZunk

You would still need to have PS to change the photos.
Take a look at PS Elements as a cheap alternative to the full version of PS.

digismile

Pete405 wrote: »

So basically, what your saying is that I can just have someone with some PS knowledge help me create the initial template and I can just learn how to add the pictures or even a name onto it?? That doesn't sound to bad

The template is still a photoshop file, so you would still need photoshop. This is really a form of simple digital scrapbooking.

Pete405

oh I have just about every version of photoshop... the program is not the problem, it's the idiot thats using it!

Richard

Nobody is good at Photoshop at first. It is designed to be efficient for the expert user, which makes it hard on n00bs. But it's the right tool for the job and it really isn't rocket science. I would suggest you look around for an introductory course at a community college as a first step. There is an entire industry thriving on Photoshop training--books, DVDs, online tutorials, etc. Once you master a few very basic ideas, you should be able to find what you need to do the rest.

jfriend

You might check out FotoFusion here: http://www.lumapix.com/index.shtml. I don't know if it can produce exactly what you posted, but it is designed to be a program for combining multiple images that is usable without Photoshop-type skills. Check out the videos that show what the different versions can do.