Doing composites in PS

[alicia_giraud]

I am new to photography and to PS and I wanted to do a composite

(also referred to as a collage?) of 4 to 6 pictures, side by side,

with a white mat. I have been braking my head trying to do it in PS

CS2 and can't figure out how. Would it be easier to do in Elements?

[dennisprice]

Perhaps this will help:

 

http://www.geocities.com/roberthaus/print/

[dean_matsueda]

<p>One (of many) way to do this:</p>

<ol>

<li>open up your first image in Photoshop</li>

<li>open up your second<//li>

<li>using the Move tool (keyboard shortcut: press the "v" key) and drag and drop the

image of your second photo on top of your first photo</li>

<li>repeat for any other images you want to composite</li>

<li>make sure you have the layers palette visible; each image is on a separate layer that

you can move around independently</li>

<li>you'll probably want to resize your window to fit all the image so go to Image ===>

Canvas Size and enter width and height values accordingly</li>

</ol>

<p>

Hope that helps to get you started...</p>

[mark pav]

I'm not sure how much direction you're after, but here's a basic guide:

 

Open all of your pictures. Pick the first one and then go to Image>Canvas Size. Increase it

proportionally according to how big the entire collage will be with all the pics. So if you

have 5 pics that are 3000 pixels wide each, make it, say, 20000 pixels wide, just so you

have room to move.

 

Next--and there are a couple of ways to do this--click on one of the other pics you have

open and go Edit>Select All>Copy. Then paste the pic onto your pic that has the huge

canvas. Keep doing this until all of your shots are on the one canvas. Then you can adjust

them and move them around as much as you like.

[elliot_n]

If you want a very simple grid arrangement, the easiest method would be

file>automate>contact sheet

[alicia_giraud]

Thank you Dennis, Dean, Mark, and Elliot. That should get me started. I forgot to add, which may make a world of difference, that I am looking to have this printed by a lab, not printing it myself, and need it to be about 30" long X 20" wide. Would this make a difference? Also, what kind of lab would print these? I looked into Mpix but they only do 2 picture collages in an 8" X 10". Anywhere else? Thanks!

[michael_matsil]

If you place your 4 to 6 images onto an enlarged canvas like has been suggested above, that

would become one image and Mpix should have no problem printing that.