Best Way To Handle A Photo Montage

if you have the memory and they aren't giant images, like 10,000 each, i would make a giant version, and shrink it down when your done. at least then you won't have to shrink each one on its own, and some day if they ever let us print larger sizes... hint hint... you can always send the larger version.

reduce the crop as much as you can, so its around 10,000px. i find anything larger than that when it becomes a 100mp picture, there is no way to dumb the image upload it here. but its best to glue it together and see what you get. just save the apart version also in case you want to swap.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

OK, Mike, thanks for the advice. Makes perfect sense.

There are software programs out there that will do montages for you. You can enter as many images as you want and arrange them in any order you want and add borders. Once you get the file you can reduce it to the 25 Meg limit.

I used to have the program but somehow lost it. Not sure what it was called.

Oh really? Free, I hope. Thanks, Floyd, I'll check that out.

Yes, it was free...

I just tried to find it on my last generation system... wasn't there either. I usually never toss anything. Not sure how I lost it.

Now I seem to remember seeing something like this before. I can't remember what it's called either.

Just had a look...was it Fotor?

I have two collages of 50 freighters each posted, Peggy. I first made a copy of each photo and then downsized it so the short side was about 1,000 because putting 50 images in the same collage at full size would probably have made it impossible to process the thing with 50 layers. I still had to "save down" in Photoshop, but I didn't have to go too far because each photo was much smaller than the original.

Depends on how many photos you want to include. 50 at one time was the most I ever did in a collage.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/50-ships-of-the-great-lakes-mary-bedy.html

Oh, and I did them by hand. Took me a few hours. I would be interested in that program Floyd mentioned, as I can't find anything that works.

Thanks for the feedback, Mary. 50 freighters, wow! The hard part is when they're all different sizes...it's like putting together a puzzle, right?

I wonder if those free software programs could handle higher resolution images. Will have to check one out.

I can't find the one I used but here is an image I did with a program that was free on my Apple Phone. I did have to used Giglepixels to inlarge it.

13 Best Free Online Photo Collage Makers

http://carlcheo.com/11-best-free-online-photo-collage-maker

Nice, Floyd. The work comes in trying to align everything. I didn't force it too much in the two ship collages because there are so many images.

When making a collage with fewer images, like Floyd's above, which I've made several of by hand, it's the resizing and repositioning that take time. Photoshop does have an alignment function, but you still have to do your resizing, etc. on the "canvas". I'm probably doing some of it the hard way.

Floyd some of those look interesting. I bookmarked the page, thanks.

I can't even find that program anymore.

Keep in mind, we are dealing with a 73-year-old memory suffering CRS anymore!

The real problem is, I get bored in certain circumstances and start playing with my phone, downloading free apps and playing with them. Then a few months go by (or longer) and they change the apps or the free trial runs out.

Yeah, I hear that, Floyd. I'm four years behind you but I find myself using the "reminder" function of my phone more and more often.

Reminder function on your phone, Mary? I forgot about that!

Thanks guys!

I make them with Picasa. There are several options for placement.

Thanks, Floyd for the link. I've bookmarked that, too.

I used to use Picasa and some others but now I use the collage maker in Zoner Photo Studio. It does most of the work for you and has a bunch of built-in templates as well as a content aware mode. It will accept high rez files and is basically drag and drop. Zoner Photo Studio is subscription-based but they do have a 30-day free trial. FWIW, usually I make giant collages and then resize as needed.

Cheers

Kathy, I think it was Picasa that I tried a long time ago. That sounds familiar anyway.

Zoner sounds good, Don, but I really dislike those 30-day free trial things because often I forget to cancel and I get dinged for a month.

Don't see anyone mentioning elements.
My computer has been screwed up, and I won't get the time to fix it for awhile ( and yes, I miss it! ),
but I do remember that you can do montages in adobe elements.

The collage makers have outlines for each image which may or may not work depending on the look you want for your collage.

Peggy, For what it's worth, I have made some collages with borders in Photoshop following the techniques that I learned in a YouTube video on making a filmstrip. Here's a link to the video (about 3-1/2 minutes long): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFfbKgaAtGA in case you want to look up the process to see if it might work for you.

Suzanne,

Most of the collage makers I use give me the option to do outlines or not do outlines.



Peggy,

FWIW, I use Zoner Photo Studio as my primary DAM and front-line Editor. I switched from Lightroom to Zoner several years ago. Yeah, I still pay for Lightroom & Photoshop and I also have ON1, ACD, Luminar, PSP, and some others, but I prefer Zoner and use it whenever possible. The collage feature is just a bonus.

Cheers

Hmmm... lots of possibilities here. Thanks for the further input, everyone.

Don, although I feel I've got enough software at my disposal, I may just have to take a peek at Zoner.