Portrait Collage

[GerryDavid]

I think thats how you spell collage.

I was inspired to do this when I seen a similiar image.


Then I thought I would try this with selective color.

And then I was wondering how it would look with a sketch look to it.

The images may not show up right away, pbase is a pain these days and it takes them a while to generate the thunbnails for offsite linking. The links should work for you.

[IanBMW]

We need ur password bud.

[GerryDavid]

We need ur password bud.

Wopse, forgot that category needed a password. Its been removed now.

[Tom Reid]

Nice work!! Was this done in Photoshop and if so any chance of a tutorial??

[GerryDavid]

Nice work!! Was this done in Photoshop and if so any chance of a tutorial??

Wasnt to hard.

I created a folder and named it frames.

I then created a square the size I wanted it, and named this master square.

I changed its blending mode to darken or multiply or something like that.

I added a drop shadow to the layer as well.

I then duplicated that layer *ctrl j* 10 times, and moved each duplication to a new spot. I rotated them as well *ctrl t*. Also I renamed each of them F01, F02, F03, etc.

I repeated the last step until every part of the image was covered. It took me 34 squares to do it.

I created a new folder "notes" to store each square.

I changed the visibity of the frames menu off so I couldnt see any of them.

I clicked on f34 while holding down the ctrl key and that creates a selection of that square.

Then I created a new layer in the notes folder, and did a ctrl delete *that or alt delete, and with background swatch set to white*, this filled the selection with white.

Then I went into quickmask *Q*.

Then filter > other > maximum > I was working on an 8x10 @ 300dpi so I used 12 or so, you may prefer something different. This will shrink the selection area by that amount on all sides. Minimum does the opposite.

Then I left quickmask *Q*.

I then went to the background layer that contained the image, and copied that selection.

Then I went back to the notes folder and pasted it. Then I merged the white background "layer 1" and the pasted selection "layer 2" by clicking on the link icon of layer 1 while layer 2 is selected and hitting ctrl e.. Then I renamed the merged selection to N34, the same number as the F34.

Then repeat the process for the other 33 squares. I created an action to do each square for me. So all I had to do was manually select the selection F01, F02, etc and hit the action and then rename the new layer to N01, N02, eetc.

The reason I did the layers backwards is because of the order the new layers appear, going upward. If I did it with n01, n02, etc, I would have to rearrange 34 layers.

Then when the 34 layers were done, I turned the backgrounds visibility off, selected everything, and did a ctrl + alt + c to copy everything/layers and ctrl v to paste the merged layers as a new layer. Then renamed to "merged layers"

Then to do the selective coloring:

I just turned the visibility of "merged layers" off so I could see the layers blow it.

Then I hit ctrl + click on the first square I wanted to remain in color in the actual image, not the layer pallet. This selected the layer in the layer pallet. I then hit ctrl + click on the layer in the pallet, this selected that square.

I then repeated the above step, and ctrl + click on the next layer I wanted to remain color on the actual image, then I hit ctrl+shift + click on the layer in the pallet. This added the new squar to the existing selection.

The advantage to ctrl + clicking on the actual image is you can find the layer you want really fast, instead of having to hunt for it in the layer pallet. When it doesnt work for me, I hit "V" to activate the move tool, then I try it and it works. I dont think it works with every tool you can use.

Then once I have all the squares I want selected, I just do a ctrl + shift + c to copy the selection and paste it as a new layer above "merged layers" and rename it "color merged".

I then would add a channel mixer adjustment layer to "merged layers", and set it to monochrome. Then playing with the mixer I find a rsult I like. I then add the adjustment layer to the "merged layers" as a clipping group by holding down the alt key and clicking between the 2 layers in the layers pallet. This way the b&w effect is locked to the one layer, not everything below it.

Hopefully the above wasnt to confusing, with a ton of ps shortcuts and maybe even a couple things that people didnt know about. I only know them from taking a couple ps classes.

Incase your wondering, the ctrl + shift + c is different than the ctrl + c. If your on a layer and you do the ctrl c, it only copies the selection that is on that layer. The ctrl + shift + c copies from all the layers. Its the same as flattening the image and then ctrl + c, but you get to keep the layers the way they are.

[tupe]

now why didn't I think of that??

[Skitzy]

Awesome idea I like the second one best, a man after my own heart! lol... I love Digital stuff.

[Tom Reid]

Thanks Gerry!! I'll give it a whirl.

[GerryDavid]

I removed the pictures because im not sure if she would appreciate her picture being up on the net. Its an after thought I had. :0)

Ill try to come up with another picture sometime to do this effect to, to replace the pictures with.