Blended photo montage

"JayD" wrote in message

I’m trying to make a blended montage of this selection of photos from my son’s soccer team –
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b101/cobol370/SoccerTeam.j pg
Everything I’ve seen shows using a layer mask w/ Gradiant tool (linear) – but that only goes in one direction (R-L, L-R, Up- down, etc)
I would like to have the photos blend in multiple directions.
I tried using the radial setting on the Gradiant tool, but I don’t see any way to adjust the radius of the center (only a tiny center portion of the photo (the team photo in the center for ex) is solid and it quickly fades as it reaches out from there)

How can I get these photos to blend in multiple directions?
Thanks.

Jay,

Why are you messing about with gradients on your son’s football (UK) photo, try using the brush tool to blend your images together.
See http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1j9eqM1KzINQ0zDNjl oVIsBf2HVk1

MH

"JayD" wrote in message

I’m trying to make a blended montage of this selection of photos from my son’s soccer team –
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b101/cobol370/SoccerTeam.j pg
Everything I’ve seen shows using a layer mask w/ Gradiant tool (linear) – but that only goes in one direction (R-L, L-R, Up- down, etc)
I would like to have the photos blend in multiple directions.
I tried using the radial setting on the Gradiant tool, but I don’t see any way to adjust the radius of the center (only a tiny center portion of the photo (the team photo in the center for ex) is solid and it quickly fades as it reaches out from there)

How can I get these photos to blend in multiple directions?

If I understand what you’re trying to do, you could achieve it in a couple of ways. For masking with a gradient, apply a reveal all mask and then create a black to white gradient tool. Starting from the edge of the photo, apply the gradient tool, but only go across a short distance (like 50 or 100 pixels on a 1000 px pic) and release the tool. Repeat for the other 3 edges.

You can also use a marquee tool in whatever shape you want. Make a selection that excludes the border of the photo. Invert the selection and apply a feather (play with it until you get what you want). Then keep deleting until you get the results you want.

Flo

In article ,
"JayD" wrote:

How can I get these photos to blend in multiple directions?

Don’t use the gradient tool.

Instead, make a selection around the area you wish to preserve, feather the selection, and then save the selection as a layer mask.

—
Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
Nanohazard, Geek shirts, and more: http://www.villaintees.com

"Dave Scott" wrote in message

Thanks to Mike’s suggestion of feathered selection with mask added, I was able to move from the previous rectangular selections Jay and I had to the attached. Much smaller size, nice edging, transparent background. Still not sure about using the brush tool. This was done with the lasso for selection set to 10 px feathering and masking out the rest of the image. Then I copied each image into its own layer in the montage file and moved them around until it looked pretty good. Then flattened everything and exported this jpeg.

HTH,
Dave

"Still not sure about using the brush tool"

to adjust the masks use the brush on the mask only, not the image make sure you are painting on the mask by clicking the little rectangle next to your image in the layer palette
put the colors on default (B&W)
use a soft brush in varying opacity to fix those gaps you have between the pictures
using 24-60% opacity soft brush will keep the soft edges white will restore the area, black will mask out more area

Dave Scott wrote:

Mike Hyndman wrote:

"JayD" wrote in message

I’m trying to make a blended montage of this selection of photos from my son’s soccer team –
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b101/cobol370/SoccerTeam.j pg

Why are you messing about with gradients on your son’s football (UK) photo, try using the brush tool to blend your images together. See
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1j9eqM1KzINQ0zDNjl oVIsBf2HVk1

I have the same problem (see attached PDF made from Word 2000) as Jay: how to blend rectangular selections into a nice composite. This was the best I could come up with until I spotted Mike’s response. Those individual head selections look really nice. However, using the brush tool to blend images doesn’t give me enough information. Can we have a little more detail on the procedure?

Thanks,
Dave

"KatWoman" wrote in message

"Dave Scott" wrote in message

Thanks to Mike’s suggestion of feathered selection with mask added, I was able to move from the previous rectangular selections Jay and I had to the attached. Much smaller size, nice edging, transparent background. Still not sure about using the brush tool. This was done with the lasso for selection set to 10 px feathering and masking out the rest of the image. Then I copied each image into its own layer in the montage file and moved them around until it looked pretty good. Then flattened everything and exported this jpeg.

HTH,
Dave

"Still not sure about using the brush tool"

to adjust the masks use the brush on the mask only, not the image make sure you are painting on the mask by clicking the little rectangle next to your image in the layer palette
put the colors on default (B&W)
use a soft brush in varying opacity to fix those gaps you have between the pictures
using 24-60% opacity soft brush will keep the soft edges white will restore the area, black will mask out more area

Dave Scott wrote:

Mike Hyndman wrote:

"JayD" wrote in message

I’m trying to make a blended montage of this selection of photos from my son’s soccer team –
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b101/cobol370/SoccerTeam.j pg

Why are you messing about with gradients on your son’s football (UK) photo, try using the brush tool to blend your images together. See
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1j9eqM1KzINQ0zDNjl oVIsBf2HVk1

I have the same problem (see attached PDF made from Word 2000) as Jay: how to blend rectangular selections into a nice composite. This was the best I could come up with until I spotted Mike’s response. Those individual head selections look really nice. However, using the brush tool to blend images doesn’t give me enough information. Can we have a little more detail on the procedure?

Thanks,

Dave

I just altered the size and hardness of a default brush (depending on how folically challenged the "owner" was) and painted around the image mask. The linked image consists of 27 layers and took about six hours (over a few days) to get to a stage I was happy with. Like all things, it is a question of practice ^3.

Regards

Mike H

In article ,
Dave Scott wrote:

Thanks to Mike’s suggestion of feathered selection with mask added, I was able to move from the previous rectangular selections Jay and I had to the attached. Much smaller size, nice edging, transparent background. Still not sure about using the brush tool. This was done with the lasso for selection set to 10 px feathering and masking out the rest of the image. Then I copied each image into its own layer in the montage file and moved them around until it looked pretty good. Then flattened everything and exported this jpeg.

For future reference, here are some things that will make your life easier:

You say you copied each image into its own layer. Do you mean you used the Copy and Paste commands? If so, you should get out of that habit. To move images from one Photoshop document to another, just click and drag with the Move tool into the window for the document where you want to move it to. Copy/Paste wastes memory and takes longer.

Instead of making a feathered selection, then copy/pasting or moving into the new document, first move the picture into the new document. Then make your selection. Then use the Select->Save Selection command and choose ‘Layer Mask.’ When you do this, you can go mack and change your mind later. You can also change the mask by painting in it with the paintbrush tool.

You do not need to flatten everything before you export to JPEG. Just use File->Save As. It will automatically flatten.

Do not use JPEG unless you have a very good, clear, and convincing reason why it HAS to be JPEG and no other format will do. JPEG will degrade the quality of your picture. It was invented for situations where image size on disk is critical and image quality is not important. If you do not know what format you should use, but you do not have a good reason why it has to be JPEG, use PSD or TIFF.

—
Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
Nanohazard, Geek shirts, and more: http://www.villaintees.com

Do not use JPEG unless you have a very good, clear, and convincing reason why it HAS to be JPEG and no other format will do. JPEG will degrade the quality of your picture. It was invented for situations where image size on disk is critical and image quality is not important. If you do not know what format you should use, but you do not have a good reason why it has to be JPEG, use PSD or TIFF.

There is not a lot wrong with saving as a JPEG for final output, I defy anyone, without a microscope to see any difference in a 20" * 16" print made from a PSD and the resulting JPEG. Also the majority of on line photo labs will use nothing else. (Try uploading several 500 meg PSD’s versus 20 Meg JPEG, no contest) What can cause problems is constantly opening, editing and resaving a JPEG, thereby reapplying the compression algorithm over and over again. (JPEG, compression algorithm or file format; discuss) http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/formatsjpeg/a/jpegmythsfact s.htm

MH