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Posts Tagged ‘Photomontage’

How to Make a Cool David Hockney-Inspired Photomontage in Photoshop

27 Sep

The post How to Make a Cool David Hockney-Inspired Photomontage in Photoshop appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Megan Kennedy.

David Hockney’s approach to art has made him one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century. Exploring the nature of photographic representation, Hockney’s distinctive method of photography is both thought provoking and physically engaging. In this tutorial, we’ll have a look at creating a simple David Hockney-inspired Photomontage in Photoshop.

photomontage-in-photoshop

The photography of David Hockney

David Hockney once said, “photography is all right if you don’t mind looking at the world from the point of view of a paralyzed cyclops-for a split second.”

However, in the 1980s, Hockney began to experiment with the photographic medium. Taking numerous Polaroid or 35mm photographs of a scene from a variety of perspectives, Hockney would then arrange the collection of images into a cohesive body, creating an almost Cubist rendering of visual reality. He called these collages and photo montages joiners.

This distinctive approach to image making was a reflection of Hockney’s dislike for photographs executed with a wide-angle lens. By creating his joiners, Hockney sought to reflect the process of seeing, creating a narrative based around visual experience.

How to make a simple Hockney-inspired Joiner

Step 1: Select an image

Image: Our source image

Our source image

For this tutorial, I’ll be using a photo I took of clouds. The photo is made up of strong shapes, forms and tones. When converted into a joiner, these elements are pulled apart to create a mangled scene that is consolidated by the overall character of the source image.

Step 2: Cutting

With your chosen image open, select the Rectangular Marquee Tool from the left toolbar (or type the letter M).

Select a small section of your image and right-click within the selected area.

Click on Layer Via Cut. The selection will be severed from the source image to create a new layer.

Image: Use the rectangular Marquee Tool to select and cut portions of your image

Use the rectangular Marquee Tool to select and cut portions of your image

Step 3 – Open a New File

Open a new file by selecting File -> New. Name the new canvas Joiner and select an image size that mirrors the dimensions of your source photograph.

Click OK, and a new canvas will open. This is the canvas we will create our joiner on.

photomontage-in-photoshop

Opening a new canvas. Set the height and width to the same dimensions of the source file.

Step 4: Drag and drop

Return to your source image.

With the Move Tool (V), select the recently cut section of the source image and drag it onto the tab of Joiner. The Joiner canvas will open.

Drag the cut selection onto the Joiner canvas. Place the selection in roughly the same location that it is on the source image. It doesn’t need to be exact.

Image: Dropping portions of the source image onto the Joiner canvas. Feel free to overlap the differ...

Dropping portions of the source image onto the Joiner canvas. Feel free to overlap the different layers, as this will contribute to the joiner aesthetic!

Step 5: Creating the Joiner Effect

Continue to cut selections from the source image, dragging and dropping them onto the Joiner canvas. You can cut similarly or randomly sized pieces – it’s up to you.

Once you’ve cut and transferred most of your source image to the Joiner canvas, it’s time to emphasize the joiner effect.

You want to cultivate a disjointed aesthetic, like misaligned puzzle pieces.

You can overlap, duplicate, stretch and rotate each piece to exaggerate this disjointed effect.

Make the edges of the joiner correspond, or allow components to poke out of the overall composition like a messy collage.

Be expressive with your perspectives, experiment with different combinations and don’t worry too much about neatness.

You can even place Curves adjustment layers among the image layers on Joiner to alter the exposure of individual pieces.

And that’s it! Once you are happy with your joiner, make sure to save it as a .PSD file in case you want to alter the arrangement later.

Image: A simple joiner effect created by overlapping the segmented portions of the source image.

A simple joiner effect created by overlapping the segmented portions of the source image.

When you’ve got the technique down, the sky’s the limit! In the image below, I cut my source image into much smaller pieces before placing them on the canvas. I also duplicated a lot of the layers to create repetition within the layout. The smaller the pieces, the more disjointed the image becomes, creating a greater sense of movement and altered perspective.

photomontage-in-photoshop

Conclusion

David Hockney is a man of many artistic talents. As a photographer, Hockney developed a distinctive style that plays with our sense of narrative and perception.

Experimenting with the joiner effect to create a Photomontage in Photoshop isn’t quite the same as taking a whole bunch of photos and arranging them together manually.

However, with a basic process that involves cutting, pasting, arranging and a little experimentation, we can get close to a Hockney-inspired effect.

Here is another of my own creations – I’d love to see yours! Post them in the comments below!photomontage-in-photoshop

photomontage-in-photoshop

The post How to Make a Cool David Hockney-Inspired Photomontage in Photoshop appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Megan Kennedy.


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How To Make Amazing Photomontages. Part 2: Compiling Photomontage Photos

10 Feb

The post How To Make Amazing Photomontages. Part 2: Compiling Photomontage Photos appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.

In Part One of this three-part series on How to Make Amazing Photomontages, you learned how to approach and take your photos for your montage. Here in Part Two, you’ll learn about compiling photomontage photos. To compile your Photomontage images using the following steps, you require Photoshop or other imaging software that has the ability to create layers.

Lanna Chic 1 How To Make Amazing Photomontages

© Kevin Landwer-Johan

Part 2: Compiling your photos

1. Get organized

Managing your photos well can save you getting in a mess further along in this process.

Import all your images into one folder. Go through and pick out your strongest images – ones that stand out to you.

Naturally, you’ll have lots of photos that won’t be worth looking at on their own, but among them should be some key images. Put these into a separate folder and label it ‘Group 1’ or something useful to you.

Next, you need to choose the bulk of the photos you want to use. Think about the images you want to go around the edges. Which ones are for the main body of your photomontage? These are likely the first photos you took. Place these into another folder and label it ‘Group 2’ or something useful to you.

Drop the remaining images into a third folder and label it.

Ceramic Artist How To Make Amazing Photomontages

© Kevin Landwer-Johan

2. Save as and resize all your images

Save all your photos as jpeg files with a resolution of 300ppi. At this resolution, they are a little large but will be the same size when you get them printed later.

What dimensions do you want your finished photomontage to be? Think about how many photos you made along the horizontal axis. Calculate how wide each one should be, so they fit within the finished size you want your montage.

If you want a montage one meter wide (3.3 feet) and have taken seven photos across the horizontal, make each photo 14 centimeters wide (5.5 inches.) This gives you a starting point. As you start laying the photos out, this can change entirely so you may have to resize the images again later.

Run a batch command to resize them all. Save them to new folders because it is helpful if you need to resize the originals again later.

Chedi Luang How To Make Amazing Photomontages

© Kevin Landwer-Johan

3. Prepare a clear canvas

In Photoshop or your preferred software, make a new canvas. Make the ppi resolution 300 to match your image files. Make the size a little larger than you want your finished Photomontage to be.

4. Import your photos

Photoshop allows you to import a series of images to a single working file, so they retain their original file names. To do this, go to the top menu and choose File->Scripts->Load Files To Stack. These open into a new canvas. Select them all and drag and drop them onto your montage canvas.

Do this with the three folders of resized images you’ve made. Arrange them in the layers panel so they are in three groups to make your workflow easier.

Lanna Chic 2 How To Make Amazing Photomontages

© Kevin Landwer-Johan

5. Lay out your photos

Right now you probably have all the layers stacked so you can only see the top photo. Turn off the visibility of the Group 1 and Group 3 folders.

Select all the layers in the Group 2 folder and drag all the photos to one corner of your canvas.

Now select only the top layer and drag and drop it roughly in the position you want it. Do the same with each layer. Don’t worry at all about positioning anything precisely at this stage. Everything from here is likely to be shuffled around a number of times.

Once you’ve added all the photos in Group 2 and have them laid out, repeat this process with images in Group 1. Then from Group 3, but only if you really need them.

Drag photos up and down in the layers panel hierarchy to place them above or below other photos on the canvas.

As you add more photos, you should start noticing the relationship between the images. Keep nudging and tweaking all the layers until you are satisfied they’re all in the best position.

When I am working with large numbers of layers, I color code them to help me keep track of them. You might like to make the layers with the images on the left, middle and right of your montage all separate colors.

Colored Layers How To Make Amazing Photomontages

© Kevin Landwer-Johan

6. Turn unused layers off

You may now have many layers visible with lots of overlapping. Begin to turn layers off for images you may not want to include in your finished montage. Don’t delete them at this stage, just turn their visibility off.

Now you’ll see fewer photos on your canvas, and it’ll be easier to arrange the images you have visible.

At this stage, you may be seeing some gaps in your montage. This is where the images in Group 3 may be useful if you haven’t added them already. You can always duplicate similar layers and drag the copied layer to fill the space. If this does not work, you may need to go back and take some more photos.

Once you are happy with the way your montage looks, go ahead and delete all the layers you have turned off.

Harleys How To Make Amazing Photomontages

© Kevin Landwer-Johan

7. Go back and take more photos (optional)

Having big gaps in your photomontage may look okay. Alternatively, you may have completely covered the whole area and edges, and have ample images. If not, you’ll need to have another session and make some more images.

Use the same camera and lens, at the same focal length. Make your new photos at about the same time of day and ensure you have similar lighting. If the light’s not right, you’ll have a hard time making the new set of photos match.

A few additional layout tips

There’s no right or wrong way of laying out your Photomontages, but you’ll be more pleased with some layouts than others.

If you get stuck and can’t get the photos arranged so they look good, start again. Duplicate the whole file. Keep the original one and re-work the new file. Move the images around differently and change their positions in the layers hierarchy. Experiment until you are content.

Aim to build cohesion in your composition. Too much fragmentation can make your montage difficult for people to view. Follow strong lines in your montage to help keep the flow. In my montage of the taxi trucks in Chiang Mai, following the lines of the vehicles was vital.

Songtao How To Make Amazing Photomontages

© Kevin Landwer-Johan

Don’t worry about ragged edges. I don’t often make montages that fit a regular shape. However the edges of your montage are formed, make sure they enhance the overall image.

Tweaking individual photos may sometimes improve the overall look of your montage. When you have the images laid out, take a step back and consider your composition. Are there individual images which are too dark or too bright? Do some contain colors that don’t fit well? How would the whole montage look in black and white?

Be prepared to go with the flow of new ideas you’ll have during the process. As I said, there’s no right or wrong way to make these. It’s up to your creative process. Starting with some idea of how you want it to look is important. However, you don’t need to stick to it strictly when you feel fresh ideas emerging.

Conclusion

Take your time. The process of compiling a montage until you are satisfied can take a long time.

Tuktuk How To Make Amazing Photomontages

© Kevin Landwer-Johan

Often I have been on the verge of giving up because I just can’t get a montage looking right. I had started my Tuk Tuk montage then it sat on my hard drive for months without being touched. Finally, I got back to it with some fresh inspiration, and it came together well.

Experiment with the placement of your photos on the canvas. Look at how each one relates to the images around it. Zoom out and sit back often to keep an eye on how the overall montage is taking shape.

Let’s see what you are working on and your thought process in the comments below.

In the next article in this series, I outline how to compile a print version of your Photomontage.

 

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The post How To Make Amazing Photomontages. Part 2: Compiling Photomontage Photos appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.


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