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Category: How'd You Do That?

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4!


 
  4!
4!

Amanda E. Radovic

  
 
 

Gena L. Talbot 		 

Amanda, I absolutely love this image creation that you have made. I would love to know how you made such a beautiful display? Please give a little hint! lol lol You have EXCEPTIONALLY BEAUTIFUL images throughout your gallery. You do such awesome work! Congrats on being such a great photographer! :)


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May 12, 2006

 

BetterPhoto Member 		  I agree! This is wonderful. One of the nicest collage I have seen yet.


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May 15, 2006

 

Amanda E. Radovic 		  Thanks Gena and Trula. Here is how I did it. It is very long and involved but if you do it step by step it'll come together.

I started with full colour files - the desaturation comes at the end ok!

- I opened the 3 main pics of the little girl, duplicated them (choose Image from the top toolbar and select duplicate in the drop down menu) and adjusted them so they were all similar and full colour. Then I put a small black border around each of them by doing the following...
- Alt-Ctl-C will bring up the canvas size dialogue box.Tick the 'Relative' box. On the canvas extension colour choose the colour you wish your border to be. Then enter a small value ie. 0.3cm for a thin border and increase the value to make the border thicker. Save.
- Open a new document, background colour white. Make sure the resolution of the document is at least 200dpi for good printability.
- Layer>New fill layer- I did this a soft pink so change the layer name to the colour you choose. When you hit the ok button the colour picker comes up. Choose the colour and hit ok. Then you can adjust the layers opacity and fill by adjusting the sliders in the layers pallette which should be one of the boxes in the right of your screen.
- Now drag each of your opened pictures into the new document (holding the ctrl button and dragging will do this). You'll notice that you have a new layer in your layers palette. Double click on the 'Layer 1' Text and name it so you can recognise it. If you have CS2 (I am not sure if CS has this option), then right click the active (highlighted) new layer and select 'Group into smart object'. This will allow you to transform the image without damaging the quality.
- In the options (top of screen) toolbar Select View>Show>Smart guides. This will give you magenta guidelines which will show when your images are aligned. You'll see when you move your pics around inside the new document.
- Options toolbar>edit>transform>scale. Ensure you highlight the chain symbol in the new options toolbar to lock the ratio and prevent image distortion. You can now make the image the size you need. Obviously choosing rotate etc can be used too and that each transformation will be non damaging as long as the layer is grouped as a smart object - clever photoshop.
-When you have all your main framed images framed as you want them it is time to do the underlying opaque images. You will need to select pics which will fit into the spaces well and that pull the image together - I can't help you choose that!
-To do this you now need to click on the background layer - this will ensure that the images are underneath the framed ones.
- Drag each picture one at a time. Group into smart objects and resize via transformation so that they fit well.


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May 16, 2006

 

Amanda E. Radovic 		  HERE IS THE REST!!!
- In the layer palette there will be a box with 'normal' in it. If you hit the down arrow a drop down menu of layerstyles will show. Select Luminosity for these images and adjust the Opacity and Fill sliders of each layer till you get the transparancy you desire.
- To soften the edges so that they seem to merge I simply add a mask to each layer by highlighting each layer one at a time and clicking on the 'circle inside a rectangle' at the bottom of the layers palette. Then I chose a large soft natural brush. Set the opacity to about 30% and brushed away the hard edges.
- When happy with the image then click Layer>flatten and save.
-The rough painting look around the image is an effect from Autofx Photographic Edges plug in filter.

I hope this helps and that I haven't forgotten anything. Perhaps print this up so you can work from a hard copy.

Have fun :-)


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May 16, 2006

 

Amanda E. Radovic 		  oH YEAH!!! I did forget something. I then at the very end desaturated the whole lot.
Shift,ctrl,U for desaturate then Shift, Ctrl F for fade then adjust the slider till you get the saturation you like.

Bye!


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May 16, 2006

 

Gena L. Talbot 		  (((((AMANDA))))) What great instructions you gave. WOW I am amazed on how easy it was to follow them. You are such a great person to help out like that. I can't wait to put that into great use. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!! :)


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May 18, 2006

 

Amanda E. Radovic 		  My pleasure Gena. I think that Photoshop is such an overwhelming application sometimes that step by step insturctions are helpful. You can then have a play around with different effects to your own liking. You'll have to send me a link when you upload a montage of your own :-)


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May 18, 2006

 

Julie Lee 		  Hi Amanda,

What photoshop program did you use to do this? I have elements 4.0, and was not able to follow some of the steps because I couldn't find them in 4.0

Thanks, I think all of your photos are fantastic!

Julie


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December 22, 2006

 

Amanda E. Radovic 		  Hi Julie, I am running CS2 - I'm not sure what steps Elements 4 doesn't have (I know it doesn't have curves) - probably smart objects as they were new to cs2.


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December 22, 2006

 

Julie Lee 		  Hey Amanda,

Thanks for responding. Yep, that's one of the things I couldn't find. You gave such good instructions though, I was able to create something similar. I don't think element has the "circle inside a rectangle" that you mentioned, so my hard edges are still visible, I used the eraser tool and a soft edged brush to try to brush the edges away, didn't work very well, I'll have to try something else.. Elements doesn't have the Fade slider either, I don't think so anyway. I'm sorta new at this :)
Thanks again, I learned a lot.
Julie


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December 22, 2006

 

Amanda E. Radovic 		  when you make your selection (the circle), try right clicking inside the selection which will bring up some options. Choose feather and enter between 100-250 pixels, depending on how large your image. You'll also have an inverse selection option which is handy if you want to vignette your edges. Try shift ctrl F - if elements has fade then that shortcut will bring it up.


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December 22, 2006

 
- Carlton Ward

BetterPhoto Member
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Carlton Ward's Gallery 		  Thank you Amanda,
Great instructions and such a beautiful work of art you have created.
I was just trying to do something similar and knew I was missing a couple of steps. Now that you have filled in the gaps for me, I will try again.
Happy Holidays


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December 24, 2006

 
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