How do you merge photos in PSE3?

[Daniel R.]

I take photos of music concerts as my bride plays French Horn in a community band type orchestra.

I would like to know how to merge say three or four photos into one photo so it looks like a collage.

Any direction would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks!
Daniel

[Ward Grant]

Basically you will need to put each picture on its own layer, which you can then move and resize as needed to better blend the image.

Open a new file and set it to 8 x 10 inch with a white background and 300 dpi (assuming you are going to print these pictures).

Open the first picture you want to include in your collage. Do Select->All then Edit->Copy. Go back to your New File and do Edit->Paste. This will put the first picture on its own layer.

Close the first picture (not the New File). Open the second file and repeat the procedure until all the pictures you want in the collage are in one file.
(A second option is to open all the files, do Window->Images->Tile and drag and drop the pictures into your background file. I just prefer to work with one file at a time. It is just personal preference)

You can now click on each picture and use the Move Tool to position and re-size each of the individual images to create the collage you want. When you are finished, save the file to a PSD or TIF format to keep all your layers intact in case you want to re-edit the file later.

If you have not worked with layers before, try this site which will give you a good starting point:
http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/walkthrough/learningcenter.php

In the middle of the screen will be two videos: Intro to Layers Part 1 and 2 which will show you the basics.

A second option is to use File->Print Multiple Photos and use one of the pre-set formats in the Organizer. This may be simpler, but you lose some control on image size and placement.

[kayser]

Daniel,

Also, there are some good ideas if you browse in the gallery; many people have made creations that will give you inspiration. I had this same question when I first got on the forum, and Carol pointed me to one of her creations:

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1bfnQILpGFyvVSjG2qmUJHfC2E2HjU1

Not sure if you're a subscriber, but there are some tutorials and videos in the subscriber area, including one on creating a scrapbook page (which is similar to what you want.)

Good luck, and I hope you share your finished product!