Need to make a collage

[gramps]

So the Little League board wants to make a year book for all the kids in the league. They gimme 2 whole pages to dump what photos I want in. So once I get past the sorting of thousands of shots, I need to submit a collage.

What I would like to do is make a 8x10 main photo and dump a lot of smaller photos over the top, then merge them all into one photo.

I can do this with publisher, but to put 30 or so photos on a page would make the size of the file way too big.

I have photoshop though never used it and cant figure out how to merge photos, and help is...well no help.

Anyone got any experience with merging photos in photoshop or recommend a different program or proceedure to get this done.

[Sammie]

i know how to do it using corel

unforunately i cant locate my install disk or i would mail you a copy

I know we have a few expert adobe peeps around so they be able to point you in the right direction

Otherwise, I'd be glad to help in anyway I can if you can send me the photo's and give me an idea of the layout you want.

Just let me know if you want some help

[psychonaut13]

merging photos in photoshop is really easy.

what you do is open a new document that is the size that you want the page to be. however! this is for print so you need to be sure that you tell photoshop to make the image 300 DPI(dots per inch). by default, when you create a new psd(photoshop document) it will be set to 72 dpi. these settings are in the new document dialog box when you go to file>new.

http://www.13thelementpropaganda.com/random/newdoc.jpg

once you have your new blank document open, open all the other images that you have chosen to use in the collage. you can do it all at once or one at a time depending on the amount of RAM you have in your machine.

since a print document is 300 DPI your new document will be a huge file size once you get all your images in there. so it's best to save down your new document and close it.

with your other photos open...there are several ways you can go about it...

you can simply grab the layer that the image is in and drag it into the new document window...but that will include all of the photo.

if you want to "Cut" the background out of the photos and just use an element or maybe one part of an image you can use the selection tools in the tool bar.
there's the freehand lasso tool,http://www.13thelementpropaganda.com/random/lasso.jpg
the polygonal selection tool, http://www.13thelementpropaganda.com/random/polytool.jpg
and the magnetic selection tool..http://www.13thelementpropaganda.com/random/magtool.jpg


the freehand lasso selection tool is a bit clumsy and doesn't really lend itself to easy use if you're trying to cut out detailed curves....like cutting a person out of the background. for cutting out objects that need to be more precise, you want to use the magnetic selection tool..
wnen using the magnectic selection tool there are several settings that you can play with to get the best result
http://www.13thelementpropaganda.com/random/magsettings.jpg
FEATHER will make the outter edges of the selected area a little transparent. pixel width will tell photoshop how wide to sample the colors in the image it is snapping to, edge contrast is the same as pixel width, but it compares the contrast of one pixel to the others next to it, and frequency is how often photoshop will place an "anchor point" in the selection. you'll have to play with these settings to find the ones that you're the most comfortable with and that give you the desired effect.

when you click on the lasso tool, you can pull away from the tool box(being sure your mouse is still clicked) to select any of the tools under that button.

once you have all your images prepared to go into the collage, open your 300 DPI print PSD that you created earlier.

with your cursor over the layer of the image that you wish to move into the print document, simply click and drag it from one document window into the next. and presto...theres a COPY of that image in the print document.
(this does NOT delete the image from the document that contained it to begin with, it just makes a copy and puts it on a new layer.)

once you have all the images in the 300 DPI PSD all you have to do is arrange them the way you want them to be and SAVE YOUR DOCUMENT. once this is saved, you can then go to the little arrow at the top right of your layers palete and click to bring out an options panel and select FLATTEN IMAGE or merge visable.http://www.13thelementpropaganda.com/random/flatten.jpg

now save this down as a seperate document so if you need to go back in and change the arrangement of any image in the collage you can by opening the first 300 DPI PSD that you created.

hopefully that helps some, if you need more help, feel free to pm me, hit me up on aim/msn or you can pm me for my cell number and i'll do my best to help you more.

[Smashley]

yep...

[gramps]

Psyco, you so rock thanks tons

[psychonaut13]

np gramps. just let me know if you need any more help. i'll gladly do what i can.

[gramps]

wellllll....i guess I do need a wee bit more help. I have spent the last couple of weeks getting team photos done so only now have I been able to start working on this collage.

I got the photos cut out, the editor gave me 2 pages, so I spent the night cutting out aboiut 50 shots.

I am trying to get as many cutouts in the document as I can. I grabbed one photo and drug it into the 8x10 doc and it was ...oh about 7x3. The only way I could find to reduce the photo was under image and it wanted numbers (HxW). I cant do numbers, mainly because I will screw up the HxW ratio. Is there a way to graphically, grab a corner of the photo and resize it within the main doc? (Much like word will allow with photos)

Also, I would love to be able to rotate CW, CCW less then 90 degrees. Is there a way to rotate...say 20 degrees?

When I cut out the shots, I got a white background. To make the background transparent, so that the lower layer shows through, is my only option to extract?

[psychonaut13]

you can transform the scale and rotation of any layer by hitting ctrl + t (this turns on freehand transform).

to be sure that the only pixels in the layer are those of the image itself and not a background color...
be sure that you are cutting the selection out and putting it on an otherwise empty layer.
1. make your selection around the part of the image that you want to use.

2. hit ctrl + c (copy)

3. go into the print document and make a new layer

4. hit ctrl +v (paste)