How I Do a Photo Montage

PhilL

PhilL

Joined
Oct 1, 1999
Messages
6,490
I’ve been around these boards for a lot of years, not as much as I used to be. I’ve done a bunch of tutorials on down and dirty photography, image editing, and digital painting using Photoshop.

I started with a tutorial “No Frills Lighting”
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/306402-No-Frills-Lighting?highlight=Frills+Lighting

Next “How I Photograph Knives”
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/452121-How-I-photograph-knives

Then “How I do Image Editing” is still a Sticky at the top of this page.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/455896-Image-Editing-Tutorial

I wrote this tutorial on “How I Do a Photo Montage” for another forum, but if nobody minds I’ll post it here as well. With the hope of seeing more interesting images and to inspire you to make them.

I want to take some of the mystery about putting two (or more) knives in the same image. Putting two or more knives in a photo is easy, it’s just a matter of knowing what buttons to push in your Image Editing program (Photoshop, Elements or GIMP).

Let’s say you wanted to show both sides of a knife in one image. If you start by photographing them with the intent to put them together, then shoot one side on an angle leaving space for where the other side is going to go in the final image. Take the second shot of the other side. Take the best photos you can to start. If you have a tripod use it, this will help to make sure the angles match.

Open up both images in your image editing program and compare them, they need to match in contrast and color. Make your corrections, but don’t crop.

Knife Photos by Ed Fowler ​

OPEN-BOTH-IMAGES.jpg


Duplicate the Background Layer by pressing Control + J, in case you need to rotate the background knife.

Move one photo into the other, Click and Drag or Select, Copy & Paste. Look at your Layers palette the top layer is the one that’s visible.

MOVE-ONE-PHOTO.jpg


TO-POSITION.jpg


To position the knives so they’re side by side in the final image, Lower the Opacity on the knife photo and Move one or both knives to their final positions.

TO-TRANSFORM.jpg


To Transform Press Control + T. Now you have both knives in the same image, but the top knife is ghostly because we lowered the Opacity. We want to reveal the bottom knife when the Opacity is 100% on the top image. There’s a couple of ways to do this.

With the top Layer selected and the opacity lowered, go to your Tools and choose the Erase tool and just erase the section of the top photo so that the lower knife is shown. Increase the Opacity of the top layer to 100%. There you have it, both sides of the knife in the same image. That’s pretty easy, but there is one drawback, you’ve erased the pixels from the top photo, it would be hard to go back and make changes later. There is a Non-destructive way to accomplish the same image.

Again with the top Layer selected and the opacity lowered, go to your Layers palette and with the top layer selected and highlighted, Click on the Layer Mask icon. Another box will open next to the image window in the layer. Make sure the Layer Mask is selected and highlighted.

LAYER-MASK.jpg


PAINT.jpg


PAINT-2.jpg


Go to your Tools and choose the Paint Brush tool and just Paint in Black the section of the top photo so that the lower knife is shown. Anything you paint Black will be revealed. If you make a mistake, switch the color to White and paint over whatever you want to correct.

ZOOM-IN.jpg


Increase the Opacity of the top layer back to 100%.

MOVE.jpg


CROP.jpg


The Layer Mask acts just the same as the Eraser, except that it is Non-Destructive and can be changed at any time as many times as you want with nothing being removed for the photo. There’s other advantages to this Layer Mask approach.

If you want to see some excellent photography and this montage technique used masterfully go take a look at my friend Jim Cooper’s website.
http://www.sharpbycoop.com/jalbum/index.html

Go get inspired.
 
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Great tutorial PhilL.

One of the best tips given to me by the retouchers at work was to "Work large"
You are so right to say "Don't be afraid to zoom in"

Gotta love the old school pointing finger too :D
 
Wally thanks for hitting my thread.
I was starting to think after 100 views that I was on everybodies 'Ignore' list, or this tutorial had been done 100 times before.
Or that nobody was interested.
 
Sad to say, typical stuff for the forums nowadays.
Happens to me all the time in the sheath making forum.
 
One can also arrange multiple pics in PowerPoint and then do a Windows "screen shot" of the resulting PP page. Brute force approach but it works.
 
Thomas how well does it work?
Can you show me an example of one that you've done?
If you're doing a screen shot than the best resolution you can get is 72ppi, which may be fine for posting online. But, less than what you'd want for a print or publication.
I'm all for using whatever you have available, but when you can get print/publication quality results from a Free program GIMP, I say why not give it a try.
 
I just got photoshop and I feel that I will need a masters degree to figure out the basics. Following the videos but It will still take me some time before I get what I want.
I will try your way next.
Thanks.
 
Thomas if it's giving you the results you want then by all means stick with it.

Primitive Energy, Photoshop is a great program, with the tools to take your creative imagery to where you want to go.
My tutorial is just down and dirty specific to combining two images into one. You should be able to open Photoshop, Elements or GIMP for the very first time and be able to follow me step by step.

I've been doing graphics for about 15 years, I still refer to my Photoshop books for certain techniques and do online tutorials every chance I get.
 
After a couple of hours of trial and error I finally got lucky and put in the background.

8 more years and I might learn something.:o
 
I did the tutorial to show you how to get two different views of the same knife in an image. It looks like you only want to show the same knife image only inverted.
 
I've played around with this off and on for some time now. Not terribly complicated in principle ...... execution, however is hit or miss for me. As with most of the pictures I take, lighting control is the most difficult aspect and something with which I always struggle. This is even more true when taking these types of shots. Bracketing the exposures in each of the individual shots does seem to help .... but I lack the lighting set-up and patience. Thank goodness I don't have need for this type of shot for my knife "hobby" Here's the quick one I did after PhilL made the initial post:

PThamIvDamGents13.jpg


As you can see, lighting could have been so much better.
 
Dennis, I think you have the technique nailed.

Of course it all starts with the photos.
I've never had your problem of having to bracket exposures to match the images later. They all need a minor tweak when you start off, but nothing major. The quick fix in Photoshop CS is Image menu > Adjustments > Match Color, and then just match the background image.
 
PhilL said:
I did the tutorial to show you how to get two different views of the same knife in an image. It looks like you only want to show the same knife image only inverted.
Click to expand...

I am a total noob. I have zero photography and zero computer skills. It takes me so long to do so little. I don't have any good pics yet so I am just practicing with one side.
Thanks PhilL for your helpful tutorials and thread. I promise to read, practice, and improve.


I always enjoy your pics. d.r.h. I hope to get close to your level someday.
 
I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. I took too much time making sure I didn't go out of the lines. Instead I can use the big brush and paint it in quickly. What took an hour now takes me minutes. Thanks for saving me 8 years and lots of stress PhilL.:):thumbup:

 
As long as somebody found the first tutorial useful I may as well put up Part II.

In the first exercise we put two knives together with a Layer Mask where there was no overlap between the top layer and the bottom layer. My buddy Coop www.sharpbycoop.com has done thousands of knife images and montages and almost never overlaps. So again your creative options are almost endless. But what if you want two images to overlap.

Using the same technique of the Layer Mask, just paint in black the parts you want to reveal only with more detailed painting. Don’t be afraid to Zoom in on the area you’re working on and use a smaller or harder brush to get a really clean edge. Switch be between Black and White to make any corrections. Take your time, switch the opacity back to 100% to check your work. Remember this is non-destructive, you can make changes or corrections as many times or whenever you want. Don’t be afraid to Save your work, Close it and come back tomorrow if you like.

The finer painting work is where you will really wish you had a graphics tablet, but if you zoom in and work slow you can do it with a mouse.

Overlapping Two Images Step by Step

I borrowed a couple of pics from Joe Calton www.caltoncutlery.com (the photos on the left). First thing I did was paint out the bullets and date stamp. I’ll use the two pics on the right.

I’m going to overlap the tip of the knife over the sheath. I’m going to put a copy of the knife on the layer above the sheath and apply a Layer Mask.

Step 1 is to bring the sheath photo into the knife image. I’m going to Click & Drag, or Select All (the sheath) Copy & Paste into the knife picture will do the same thing. In the Layers palette the sheath is above the knife.



Step 2 I need to copy the knife layer and bring a copy on top of the sheath layer. By clicking on the knife layer and pressing Control + J it will make a copy of that layer



When I go to the Layers palette and drag the knife copy layer and bring it to the top now it’s visible in the work area.

Step 3 Lower the Opacity of the top layer



While I’m on the top layer I want to turn the knife on more of a diagonal. Control + T to transform then Enter.

Step 4 Next I want the sheath to be going straight up and down and not on a diagonal. Click on the sheath layer and hit Control + T to transform. After I turn it over, it’s too big for the image I need to resize. I grab the bottom corner and hold the SHIFT key and make it smaller.



Step 5 Now it’s time to add a Layer Mask to the top knife layer and expose the sheath layer beneath it. Click on the top knife layer and click on the Add Layer Mask button



Step 6 With the Paint Brush tool selected and a good sized soft round brush, with Black as the color start painting. When you’ve exposed the sheath return the Opacity to 100%.





There’s one problem, the tip of the knife is gone. But, it’s not really. We just need to paint on the mask in White to undo the mask where the tip of the knife is. Remember this is a Non-destructive technique.

Step 7 Don’t be afraid to Zoom In.



Change the color to White use a smaller and harder brush, take your time and paint over the tip of the knife. You may have to go back and forth between White and Black, but take your time and you’ll get the job done.



Step 8 Judge how well you did by viewing the image at 100% by clicking on the Zoom tool twice.



Step 9 Click on the CROP tool, set the Width to 10 and the Height to 8 this will crop your images in perfect proportions for a standard sized print. CLICK & DRAG a corner to Crop.



Of course you don’t have to stop there, you can keep adding elements, layers and mask, selections and gradients, logos and type, until you’ve told your story or you get tired of playing.


But, once again if you never overlapped two images that would be fine, you would still have unlimited number of design options.

On the other hand you don’t have to limit yourself to just two images and you can combine the techniques of some overlapped and some not. But, what if you wanted one knife to be above several other images. That’s where learning to do a Selection becomes important. I’m working on a video for that tutorial.
 
Just to clarify...

I write my tutorials so that if you were opening an image editing program (Photoshop, Elements, GIMP) for the first time you could follow along and learn a technique. I’m not trying to teach you everything. I’ve been doing it 15 years and I don’t know everything. I do know how to do what I want to do, or I know where to look when I don’t. I do as many YouTube tutorials as I can, and so should you.

I’m using Photoshop CS, it’s an outdated version (probably 6 or 7 versions). If you’re using a different version of Photoshop or Elements or GIMP your tools and buttons and placement aren’t going to be exactly the same as mine. But, with a little work on your part you will be able to find the way to do it in your program, they’re all very similar.

When I’m done with a tutorial I realise there’s stuff I assume you would know, but you might not. When somebody replies or emails me with a question I will always try to clear it up. Maybe just do a Quick Tip to make your life easier.

One of the things I know I never covered was ‘My Workspace’ in Photoshop. I try to keep it simple, usually I only have my Tools and Layers palettes open. I open History and Actions palettes only when I need them.

I never work with my ‘Desktop’ as my workspace, it’s too busy and doesn’t allow me to do certain Transformations.

Here’s my Quick Tip on the ‘F’ key.

Fkey.jpg



and a video

[video=youtube_share;PVhGKnsSRlc]http://youtu.be/PVhGKnsSRlc[/video]
 
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