BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: Software Techniques, Tips, & Tricks

Photography Question 

Pamela A. Davis
 

How to Do Montages in Photoshop?


I have been trying to figure out how to do montages in my digital darkroom. In slide work, I just put the slides over each other and remounted. With PS, I am not sure. Do I open each photo and put them on top of each other and then play with opacity? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!


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December 03, 2006

 

Stephanie M. Stevens
  You can play with the opacity, or you can use diiferent transparency effects. In the layers pallet, there is a drop-down menu with effects like dodge, burn, and color. You could also erase parts of some layers to let others show through. Press all the buttons, that's the only way to see what they do. :)


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December 03, 2006

 

Linda
  I have been playing with this technique for a little bit of time and I have prepared a video tutorial which you can find here: http://manitobacameraclub.ca/montage_digital_swf.htm

It will take a bit of time to download.

Linda


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December 06, 2006

 

Janet Kinney
  I just ordered a great book from Amazon called Digital Collage and Painting by Susan Bloom. They also cover montages. It seems like a great book to me. you might give that a try.
Janet


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December 06, 2006

 

Greg S. McMillan
 
 
  The Motocrosser
The Motocrosser
A digital Montage of a young motocross racer.

Greg S. McMillan

 
 
Hi Pamela,

I have done a few Montages, but in a different way than what is shown in Linda's video. Mine consist of different images of a common subject to perhaps tell a story. I've uploaded a sample of the type I do. If you want to know more about my technique, you can email me at gregsmcmillan@gmail.com.

Greg


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December 06, 2006

 

Alexis
  Hi Pamela,
The best way to go about Montages is to bring all your photo's in and play around with masking, filters etc. using adjustment layers. This basically allows you to retain your original layer info and if you dont like the adjustment layer you just delete it and you still have your original layer. Adjustment layers only become permenant when you apply it with the layers below. They do take some practice as any layers that are below the adjustment layer will have that affect applied to them. You can have as many adjustment layers applied to one layer as you like, however remember to either stack any other layers you dont want the effects applied to above the adjustment layer or use a clipping mask to the specific layer that you want the adjustment layers applied to. This will leave your layers underneath in their original format. A really good book is - The art of Photo Manipulation, Photoshop for Right Brainers by Al Ward.
Hope this helps and is not too confusing.
Many thanks
Alexis Burroughs


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December 06, 2006

 

Kevin Mc.
  I think this is one easy way to do it...try File>Automate>Photomerge. You can choose your images and arrange them in any way you'd like.


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December 06, 2006

 

anonymous A.
 
 
 
It depends on what you mean by "montage", Pamela. A traditional montage is a series of pictures montaged (ie "mounted") together on the same canvas or framed together, usually with a space between them, or with some overlapping. To achieve this, open a new (blank) canvas, and drag each picture into a new layer, size and position it above the canvas, adding frames etc. then merge the layers to make the final image.

If you want to merge objects from different pictures, you can use the same technique, but use the picture you want to merge into in place of the blank canvas. If you delete the unwanted parts from the other images you want to merge before you import them. The Nesting Egret on the first page of my gallery are an example.
Like most things that can be done in the digital darkroom, there are dozens of ways to achieve the effects you want. Try them out and decide which suits your style best.


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December 08, 2006

 

anonymous A.
  Sorry about the typos... The second sentence in the second paragraph should read "It is probably best if you delete...."

And of course, the egrets "is an example"


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December 08, 2006

 
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