First montage? What do you think?

[mswnow]

Hey, this is my first montage I've tried. What do you think? What can I do to make it look better? What kind of effects should I apply to the 4 pics. and how do I apply them. I was trying to figure out drop shadows but I have no clue how and i dont think they would show up anyway. Is there some way I can call attention to the black and white pics? Just please dont be too harsh.
http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1s8HqHAuQOq51lprUTB7VZdCZnKSa70_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1s8HqHAuQOq51lprUTB7VZdCZnKSa70)

[lindajay]

Hi Michael,
That's a very well done montage for your first try :) What a cute little dog. Is it yours? What's his/her name?

I don't have many suggestions, but since it is a very symmetric montage, I wonder if it would look better with all of the small pictures being b & w. And, the stroke around the small pictures -- I wonder what it would look like if you made them a color instead of white, such as using the color picker to make them the same pinky-red as the dress in the main photo. As you might be able to tell by my comments, I'm a try-it-and-see kind of person. You might try these suggestions and find that everything looked better in the original. Nice work on it!

[GaryK]

Michael

Looks great to me.

I think you are right about the drop shadow .. won't show up.
The only way around it would be to desaturate the big picture and lighten it.
That would take away from that photo though.

I'm not sure what you could do to draw attention to the b/w photos. Maybe tilt them :confused:.

Still a great job:)

[mhughes]

Michael

I think it's just beautiful. The colors are great. For a different effect, I also think that maybe using free transform & tilting them could be very effective. It's fun to play with different effects,

Mary

[mswnow]

Lindajay I like that idea, ill try it and see how it comes out. as far as being a simplistic montage do you think it would look better if I changed the arrangement up a littlebit.

yes, "Poppy" is my dog shes a Rat Terrior about two years old. We have another dog, a 6 year old yellow lab, but I havent made a montage for her yet. She's not quite as photogenic, so I wanted to get better at montages before I made hers. (shes the older dog who puts up with everything poppy does to her, and shes the dog that gets less attention by not being allowed on the couch or being a lap dog.) I think she deserves more.

[mswnow]

Michael

I think it's just beautiful. The colors are great. For a different effect, I also think that maybe using free transform & tilting them could be very effective. It's fun to play with different effects,

Mary
What do you mean by tilting them? In what way? Could you elaborate please?

[mrod]

Hi Michael-

Nice work! Now, that's a dog with some character! Does he/she blink? Just kidding...

For what it's worth, here are my thoughts:

What I Like
The symmetry of the layout. Nice job spacing the 4 smaller pictures, and (what looks like) spacing them equally from the edge of the image
The pose of the dog in the larger picture. It really grabs your attention
The thin, white borders around the smaller picts. Subtle, but sets them apart just enoughA Couple Questions
What do you want the main focus to be?
Are you sold on the two small b/w picts?Some Alternatives

I made a couple small variations on your already fine theme. Here's what I did and why:
I switched the two top pictures so the dog in each small pict points the viewer more towards the center of the image. The one of the dog leaning over the couch that was orginally on the left seemed to draw me out of the image, and I found myself wanting to be drawn in, to the larger picture of the dog.
I turned the larger background picture to b/w and lowered the opacity. Now, in order to complete this, I think I would also make the two small b/w picts color instead, so they stand out more (I couldn't do this, obviously, as I didn't have the layered file). That would also allow you to add your drop shadows and have them show up. I'm not sure if you still have editable layers that can be switched back to color or not, but might be worth a try to see how it looks.
I also didn't take the time to do this, but you might want to try cropping or cloning out the date stamps on the 3 picts that have them.Here's a partial example:

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1SkaLAXUXbPcG9TVHQ6A99rQPVBkd_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1SkaLAXUXbPcG9TVHQ6A99rQPVBkd)

Just a couple thoughts. Really, a nice job, though. You choose some great pictures with a lot of character!

As always, these are just one person's humble opinions. I'm sure you'll get some different ones that you might like better!

Mike

[GaryK]

Mike

Looks like a lesson plan or evaluation.. getting ready for school????:D:D

[mrod]

:o:o:o

Guilty. You caught me, Gary. I guess it's my fun way of trying to slowly ease back into things...:D

Mike

[mswnow]

"I'm not sure if you still have editable layers that can be switched back to color or not, but might be worth a try to see how it looks."

I have original files for all the photos. The bottom right photo was taken soon after I got the camera and was experimenting with the black and white mode. (I guess I've learned my lesson, I really wish I had that in color.)

[GaryK]

Michael

We have all said .. "oh I wish I hadn't done that" :D

Maybe you could just desaturate the two other colour ones.

Anyway.. this program has way too many options to get caught up in. You can tweak every which way to Sunday and still have things to try.

[Wendy]

Hi Michael ...

I think that you have done really well with your montage ... Poppy is very photogenic :) and you have done a nice layout.

Drop shadows never work well on darker images but I don't really think that your images need it ..

... one suggestion I would make is next time you do a stroke around images use the setting "Inside" that way you get nice squared off corners. Because your stroke on this image is a narrow one it doesn't show up but if next time you use a larger then it would.

Well done with the montage !! :)

Wendy

[NRiceDesigns]

Michael, thanks for sharing your first montage.