collagetut

A nice collage of photo`s / graphics can be an eye catching background image
or ideal desktop wallpaper...and they are not difficult to make.
I wanted to make a new one for my dog`s website,
so decided to make this tutorial at the same time.
This is how I make my collages.

First you need to choose some photo`s or graphics to use.
I find it easier to place them in a seperate folder in "my documents." -
(as this tutorial is a collage of my dog, I put photo`s of him in a folder called "domino"
so I could find them easily. Just name your folder "collage" or anything that is easy
to identify.)Now start a new image with your settings as fig 1.

(It is better to have a larger canvas than you need so you have room to move your pictures around a bit. You can crop and resize the finished image if you need to.)

Next, browse your computer and find your photos/graphics folder
( in my case it was my documents / domino folder) then choose your first picture and open it (click the picture name then click open...fig 2)

Using the freehand tool, holding the mouse button in, drag the pointer all the way
round the part of the picture you want in your collage, release the mouse button,
(fig 4) don`t deselect but go to selections / invert then press the delete key.
Your selected picture will now be on transparent canvas with fading background.
(fig 5)

Go to edit / copy then close the picture, you don`t need to save it,
but if you want to, change the name or you will lose your original!.
Also it would be advisable to save as a psp image so you can make changes later if you want. Now go back to edit / paste as new layer. Click on the deformation tool and use it to resize and relocate the image until it is how you want it. (fig 6 & 7)

Now browse your computer and select your next photo, open it and repeat the process you just did with the first image. Keep repeating the steps until you have all your images on your collage and all on seperate layers. Don`t worry if any new layer overlaps a previous layer, just use the eraser to remove unwanted areas of the latest layer to reveal anything that was hidden underneath. The eraser will only remove from the current layer. Collages look better if pictures are closer together, even slightly mingled or overlapped. When all your pictures are in place, you can then go to layers and click on a layer. Then click on the deformation tool and use it to make any minor adjustments ( it will only select the picture on the selected layer)While you have your layer open you can erase any more unwanted background,
move or resize the picture until you are happy with it.
Repeat for each image until everything is as you want it.
Then you can go back to layers / merge / merge visible. (fig 9)

you will now need to fade it a bit to make it softer - text or pictures on it as it is will be hard on the eyes. If you want to keep it as it is as well, just save it first, make your adjustments,
then change the name for the finished image!
To fade it out, go to colours / adjust / levels, make settings as fig 10- click ok then save it.

You can make different colours by using the "colorise" tool (colors / colorise) or if you have coloured filters installed, just slide the colorise bar to change the colours or apply your filters and save each colour you make individually. Here are some more samples of mine.