Help with 50th Anniversary Collage

[ChargerDaytona]

I never start small, LOL. This is going to be a gift for my in-laws when they return from snow birding in a few weeks.

First a little about me, I'm a semi amateur sports photographer and have only used elements when I have to touch up a photo. Most everything I have done is with Nikon software. Made some spare change selling photos to parents.

I have elements 6, and a whole bunch of photos and some with negatives. I suspect I won't have time to get to the negatives, besides the fact my scanners resolution is insufficient for negatives.

I looked in PSE6 at creating a collage, and it's limit is 12x12. I'm looking at a minimum of 16x20, quite possible even larger. Printing will be no issue, as I have an account with a professional lab. Is there a template for larger Poster size and multiple photos with some creative presentations? I suspect all the photos will be scanned 3x5, not allowing for much upsizing.

I have a feeling this site will soon become my on of my favs!

[cats4jan]

No need for a template

Open a new canvas in the size you want

control N
300 res (this is what scrapbookers use - but your lab may be happy with less)
RGB (or whatever color mode your lab does)
size 16x20

and I like to always start with a transparent background

For your first layer - fill a new layer with color -
or take one of the photos and set the opacity really low and use that as the background

Then open your photos - crop them - do your "fixing"

Then - for each photo
select> all
edit> copy

Go to your new project
edit> paste

If you are comfortable with drag and drop - that works also

Now you have all your photos on your background
use your move tool and it's bounding box - to move the photos - to resize the photos, etc.

Realize that when you move your photos onto your background - if the photo resolution is different than the project you are working with - a size change occurs.

So, when working with the photos - size isn't as important as cropping for detail.

Just play - you'll soon see how this works.

[ChargerDaytona]

So, as I individually manipulate each photo, make sure I use 300dpi?

I like the idea of using one photo as the background. There's one in a large scale print, which may unforunately be larger then scanner. The wedding photo, which may be perfect, is only 3x5, and it's a pretty poor quality :( I highly doubt that will upscale without looking pretty bad.

How about the cute borders I see people using, or things like ovals, etc.

As I think while I type, wondering if I can just do very large 50 and just put pics around the text.

Thank you for all the great help here!

[mom to 4]

Charger:

Listen, I don't do anything hard. EVER! Collages are my all time favorite thing to do. If you visit my PET gallery and esp. my smumug gallery (go to colleens creations when there) you will see that collages are #1 on my list of fun things to do.

I do mine a little differently, but yet similar. I don't crop the original photo, I copy the whole photo to my college. then I use the marquee tool to select the area I want, right click on that part and hit Layer via copy. Then I delete the layer below (original photo). I like to add a stroke around it to set it apart from whatever your background is: EDIT>STROKE I use between 5 and 10 as the size and 99% of the time I make it white. I like to add a soft drop shadow to my photo layer too. I usually make most of my collages 12x18 as that is the largest my Costco will print in an hour. I like QUICK!!! I agree.... set that resolution to 300! Never a problem at that number.

If I can be of any help or you see something I have done that you would like to try, just post back or drop me a PM.

Good luck..... Collages are an enormous amount of fun, and everyone is always thrilled by them!! Oh, don't forget to add a text layer of congratulations or Happy Anniversary.

[Storm1]

Jan to be 100% clear (for me ) :)
use your move tool and it's bounding box - to move the photos - to resize the photos, etc
You mean size as in Inches ?
Realize that when you move your photos onto your background - if the photo resolution is different than the project you are working with - a size change occurs You mean size as in Resolution ?
So, when working with the photos - size isn't as important as cropping for detail
You mean size as in Resolution ?
Please Jan can you explain how to do a Quote in a Message properly ?
As you can see I have not got that either ! Ancient Brain !
Storm

[Diana]

Hi Charger,

Check this link out for an example of a large photo collage poster that was created for a 90th birthday:

http://www.jenstrange.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=169&Itemid=97

Diana

[ChargerDaytona]

Diana,

Thank you for the link to the 90th B'Day poster. UNFORTUNATELY I showed it to my wife and she loved it!

The instructions refer to doing a layout with the rectangle tool. The only thing I could find was the rectangle marque tool and it doesn't appear to allow me to specify a size or tell me how big the square is. Also the instructions on creating photo filled 90 aren't working with PSE 6.

Finally, through several hours of work, I was able to clean up and blow up the 3x5 print from their wedding. Took a lot of detail cloning and bicubic smoothing in 5% increments. Actually came out very good. I'm excited about this project now.

Phil

[mom to 4]

Charger.... there is a way for you to duplicate what you saw and liked. I think they allow you to download a jpg version. You can basically copy the elements of theirs that you like. I was going to send you a pm, but I don't think you have your User cp set for accepting PM's yet???

Anyway...... Yes, you would use the rectangular marquee tool. You could draw it out the size you want and then duplicate the shape to a new layer. If you have a copy of what you want to do, create a new file the size you want. Bring in the copy that you like by going to that file and duplicating onto your new file. Lower the opacity of that layer quite a bit so you can see through to your white background layer. Use your move tool to pull out what you want to copy to the edge of your new file. Then while you are on your own layer, use the rectangular marque tool to draw out the sizes. When you get it drawn out, right click and go to layer via copy. Presto. There is your first square or rectangle for your first photo to be added. You will probably want to use the paint bucket to dump a different color paint onto that new square/rectangle, so you can see it easily sitting on top of the background.

Am I making any sense????? Sometimes I tend to ramble and get ahead of myself:o Just follow this procedure until you have blocks for the amount of photos you want to use....

Then you are on to the next step.....

[cats4jan]

Sorry - I've been gone all day

The fuzzy photo for background

I don't see that as much of a problem - when the photo is set to less opacity, you will not be able to tell if the photo was sharp or not

The size issue

Usually, I don't bother with changing my photos to specific size or resolution.

What I do is - open a photo - fix the color or sharpness or any other "technical" fix.

Then I crop using the marquee and control j - as suggested above.

Then I drag that new cropped layer onto my project

And then - if the size changes because of resolution issues - I use the move tool which turns on the bounding box - and I fool with the size using the corner arrow to proportionately resize the photo.

With PSE4 - I have to hold the shift key to keep the photo proportional - but in versions 5 & 6 I believe you can use the corner arrow without the shift key - and the photo will stay in proportion.

All that talk of resolution and sizing just gets unnecessarily confusing when making your first collage.

Start your project in 300 resolution because then anything you add to the project will automatically become 300 resolution.

Which means - if your photo is of less resolution - it will get smaller. That usually works well anyways. But if the photo gets too small - then use the bounding box of the move tool and make it bigger. You will be able to easily see if the photo gets fuzzy. But for the most part, you can resize a photo quite a bit before it gets fuzzy.

The reason I crop before I place a photo on a page - is it's just easier and less confusing to work on one photo at a time - rather than trying to crop them while they are already on the collage page.

I crop using the marquee tool and control j.

Click on the marquee tool - make a selection from your photo -
hit control j and your selection goes on it's own layer.

However - note - unless you turn off the original layer - you cannot see your selection/crop

To turn off the original layer - look to the layers palette - note the eyeball on the left edge of each layer - click on that - the layer shuts off - click on it again - it turns back on.

Then I drag my new layer - the one I just made - onto my collage project

If you cannot see your photos and your projects in your work space
choose
window> tile or
window> cascade

and you will see the edges of each item you have opened. These items can be moved around just like you move any window around - you grab the bar at the top of the photo and drag if over.

Others drag in and out of the photo bin - but that's never worked well for me.

Either drag and drop or use
copy/paste

As for those cute things that people put on scrapbook pages - they come from scrapbook kits or graphics that can be found on the internet.

As for your idea of putting photos in the number 50 - that will be harder than you think because your photos will be square and the numbers will have round edges - but you could give it a try.

[Storm1]

Thanks Jan will print this out .
Thanks Diana for the Link.
Storm

[emkayess65]

Hi Charger,
the rectangle tool is under the Gradient in one line, or the Paint bucket in 2 line tool box.
It is with the shape selection tools.
You can set the size under a little dropdown arrow.
It will draw the shape and fill with foreground color.
Great for the layout making.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/171a1UTYzjA2Qi31OVOYuEe4PRswO_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=171a1UTYzjA2Qi31OVOYuEe4PRswO)

HTH
mks

[mrstucci]

I found this site if you wanted something that made posters- you supply the pictures. I have not tried it nor do I own the company. It just looked like a nice, fairly way to make any size poster with any number of photos. Here is the link: http://zykloid.com/
Judy

[mom to 4]

Judy:

I own posterino. I love it!!! I do find their instructions leave a bit to be desired, but WOW, it is a really quick way to do a poster. I really enjoy the creativity that comes from having the time to create something special, but when you are in a pinch, you can't beat it. I am doing a poster as a raffle item for a fundraiser that our HS is doing. The people will bring me their pictures to use and I will put a collage together. I had to do something quickly to show the woman running the fundraiser that it doesn't have to be sports related. They are just used to me doing the sports things. So, this took me all of MAYBE 10 seconds to do once I figured out how to change 2008 (what they have on the template) to class of 2007. Then I just point the computer to the file I wanted to use, and hit "fill randomly" Ta Da!!! Now, I do have to go in and change that blurred one mid-way down out, but not bad for 10 seconds worth of work!!!

Oh, I believe it is a mac only application.


http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1Wg771wYzDjPfPUISAhFu0SPCx6p_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1Wg771wYzDjPfPUISAhFu0SPCx6p)

[ChargerDaytona]

Thank you everybody for the great help. I've slowed up the last couple of weeks due to surgery monday. On the mend and was able to do some more work on the project today. Amazing to me, was how well the 3x5 wedding photo cleaned up to a cropped 8x10, which will be my main poster photo. Wife has gone a bit wild with picking photos, got a funny feeling there's going to be more then 1 poster :)

Still haven't figured out how to get the photos into the large 50, but a bit on the fence if I even want to do that.

[mom to 4]

Not a hard as you might think.....

I try to post something similar later today.

[mom to 4]

Charger:

Sorry, I forgot about your surgery.... hope everything went well.

Here is something I just through together.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1Xw3QfIgwUz0AnFFzL20xiiQSm02s30_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1Xw3QfIgwUz0AnFFzL20xiiQSm02s30)

This is small, I think 5x7 and my numbers are around 170 pt. I think you would be using something larger. I then duplicated the graduation photos into the numbered creation (I forget what you are using elements or CS3) Once I got them in to the "creation" I "grouped" them to the number. Number underneath, photo on layer above. I then took the move tool and bragged the corner in until it fit like I wanted it to. Hold the shift key went you are dragging the corner in to keep the proportions correct. Then go to the next photo and group IT and continue on. That black area in the lower left of the 7 is what is left of my original number. My next photo would cover that. I have three photos in the 0 and two in the 7.

Easy, right??? If you need help, just yell......

(I hope that is what you were talking about doing??!!!!:o:D

EDIT: GROUP....Layer>Group with previous.. or ... a number of various ways depending on the program.

[suzanne33]

Hi Charger,

Check this link out for an example of a large photo collage poster that was created for a 90th birthday:

http://www.jenstrange.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=169&Itemid=97

Diana
What a great looking collage poster! I have done a few and this has given me an idea for another one. Like you I love doing them.

[ChargerDaytona]

Charger:

Sorry, I forgot about your surgery.... hope everything went well.

Here is something I just through together.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1Xw3QfIgwUz0AnFFzL20xiiQSm02s30_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1Xw3QfIgwUz0AnFFzL20xiiQSm02s30)

This is small, I think 5x7 and my numbers are around 170 pt. I think you would be using something larger. I then duplicated the graduation photos into the numbered creation (I forget what you are using elements or CS3) Once I got them in to the "creation" I "grouped" them to the number. Number underneath, photo on layer above. I then took the move tool and bragged the corner in until it fit like I wanted it to. Hold the shift key went you are dragging the corner in to keep the proportions correct. Then go to the next photo and group IT and continue on. That black area in the lower left of the 7 is what is left of my original number. My next photo would cover that. I have three photos in the 0 and two in the 7.

Easy, right??? If you need help, just yell......

(I hope that is what you were talking about doing??!!!!:o:D

EDIT: GROUP....Layer>Group with previous.. or ... a number of various ways depending on the program.

Thank you, minor 7 hours of surgery. Everything is going well, laying low, but getting bored out of my mind! Be back to work in about 1.5 wks

Anyway, you went way over my head with those instructions :( I'm struggling with layers anyway, but think I understand the concept. Don't understand the grouping. How does the photo get "trimmed" to match the number edges?

If I understand correctly, you create a separate "photo" and put it in the large collage.

[mom to 4]

Charger:

OUCH!!!!!!! 7 hours of back surgery?????? Double ouch!!!

Ok, lets see if I can TRY to explain myself....sometimes I am not so good at it!

open your "collage" and open whatever pictures you want to insert. Go to the picture you want to insert. right click and hit DUPLICATE LAYER. Then you can tell it to duplicate it onto the "collage" from the drop down that appears. Oh......that is how it works in CS3, maybe PSE is different.

Ok, try this...... open both you collage and your photo. Make the photo active by clicking on it. now using the move tool, drag and drop it onto the collage. You will see it should be on its own layer. It should be right on top of your Number. If not, highlight your picture layer and drag and drop it to just above your number. Once it is there. Go to LAYER>GROUP (or GROUP WITH PREVIOUS) You should still have the bounding box around it and you can use the bounding box to resize it to fit how you like it.

See if that works.......

I have a job to run to tonight, but I will try this on the PC and PSE5 tomorrow.......

Maybe I can email you a screen shot.......