Photo montage

[Conk]

I was hoping there is an experienced Photoshop 7 user here that can help me with how to make a photo montage?
I use to have a program that did an excellent job but do not have it anymore. It came bundled with a scanner.
http://www.arcsoft.com/products/software/en/photomontage.html
Instead of purchasing the software again I would rather try and make use of Photoshop 7 as it is such a powerful program.

[ltdedorc]

Colin,

My understanding from a discussion in another forum is to put each picture on a different layer & flattening it at the end in PS. I've never did it myself, only experimented and it can be done. I use MS Picture It '99 to make my montages / collages for ease of use...Harvey

Here's a link on how they did it in PS:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=3147367

[slejhamer]

Colin,
If the software works as advertised (the example on their web site) then I'd guess you will probably need to buy it again. I don't think PS has such a capability, unless you want to spend hours piecing together a thousand layers. I'm assuming you want to do something as complex as what they show. If not, ltdedorc's suggestion will work fine.

[bigdave]

I looked around on the net and it is possible with photoshop, but it would take FOREVER! There are some applications that will do it for you though.

Here's some of the free ones

up to 400 images
http://graphicssoft.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.alhena-design.com%2Fcentarsia%2F

some features locked until you register $15
http://www.fishsoft.co.uk/mosaic_download.shtml

up to 1000 images
http://graphicssoft.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fhome.earthlink.net%2 F%7Ewlhunt%2FDownload%2FDownload.html

That's about all I could find in the way of free software. Good luck.

[Conk]

Thanks People for all the research and effort put into your replies. Valuble input as always. :)

[Conk]

I should add that my intentions were to only superimpose 2-3 images. When I had the Arcsoft program I used it for just that and only a couple times. I never saved any work either. :(
I found this site that showed best what it was that I intended to do. http://www.envision.ltd.uk/pages/photomontage.htm
This type of thing I am positively sure can be done in Photoshop. I was basically hoping to get some valuble tips on how to do a good job in PS.

[digijim]

I owned a service bureau which stemmed out of a type house I started in 1979. right away wen I began seeing the software that was available, I found if I included myself as a beta tester, the software companies would give me their software in return for testing and reporting. Aldus, (the company name Adobe had first) needed beta testers, and I volunteered. I tested Aldus Pagemaker, Illustrator and Photoshop. At least the first 3 versions of each. I have since used all the versions of Photoshop and Illustrator.

Your question re: how to create a montage???

Photoshop makes it very easy.

Step one: Pick out the photos you want to include and have them saved as individual RGB files, being sure they are also the same resolution. Check that by clicking on the IMAGE:Image size pull-down menu. You can change the physical dimensions as well here but you may want to wait on that for now.

Step two: Open a new file which will be the size you want for the final outside dimensions of your montage.

Step 3: Open each photo you want in your montage, and after you open it, be sure the pointer icon in the tool box is selected, simply click and drag each picture from it's location to the new file window. As you do this, the picture you drag to the new file automatically becomes a new layer. You can be sure this is happening by going to the Window pull down and clicking on show layers. Once the Layers box is viewable, you can click and hilight on each layer to work on that layer, or move the layers one on top of the other. Play with it, you'll see. Soften edges, airbrush stuff out, clone stuff from one spot to another, and when you're happy - save the file as a (filename).psd [PhotoShopFile]. I do that so I can later come back and edit the file again if I change my mind. Then you can SAVE AS a jpg, tif or other format you would like

[john_houghton]

digijim wrote:Step 3: Open each photo you want in your montage, and after you open it, be sure the pointer icon in the tool box is selected, simply click and drag each picture from it's location to the new file window. As you do this, the picture you drag to the new file automatically becomes a new layer.
Having got the images onto separate layers, it is a good idea to add a layer mask to each layer. This will allow you to change the boundary of each image in a manner that gives complete freedom to reverse or update the changes at any time later (as long as you save the file in psd format).

John

[Conk]

T hank you very much Digijim and John. I knew there had to be a simple solution.