Creating a monster, I mean montage

A large portion of my day yesterday was spent creating a montage image in Photoshop for my digital photography class.  While lots of others living here in the US were pulling out their hair doing their taxes, I was pulling out my hair over the learning curve of Photoshop.  So my assignment had to have the following four layers:

1. A self portrait, taken during class time
2. An older photograph taken by me at some point
3. Written words, scanned and added into the image
4. A texture

For those who can already “do” Photoshop, really this is not so difficult, for me, with minimal experience it is.

The first thing I will say to anyone considering Photoshop is to make sure you have enough space on your computer because Photoshop can create some massive files.  That is what I am getting at with the title of this post. The second thing I will say is consider taking a class.  I will be doing that in the fall.  For now I have been learning via things I find online.  It works, but I thinking taking a class will help me.

Here is the image I created:

This image has many layers!

OK, so this was created using many layers, but here is an overview of how I did it.

1. My “other” photo is the bottom layer.  It was blue in hue to start with which is why I chose it to set the mood.  I did darken the sky area in it.
2. The “texture” is a hockey jersey that I scanned and then modified a bit.  It accounts for the “St. Louis” writing and the Arch.  I was going to size it to the full size of the image, but I ended up thinking the mesh of the jersey and the grass of the first image was just too much.  So I made that jersey very small on the layer.
3. My “portrait” is the third layer.  Just a photo of me sitting in front of a wall at school.  That layer has no further editing.
4. The “writing” is actually 3 separate layers.  So that I could put the words where I wanted, I have “Meet me in” as a layer, “x” as a layer, “Despair” as a layer.  The writing was scanned in and then I used the quick selection tool to isolate the letters I wanted when creating the letter.

The image overall then has a Brightness/Contrast layer and a Curves layer.

Mere hours later I have my final project.  This is also what I mean when I say monster in my post title.  Photoshop is a monster.  An “eater-of-your-time” monster.  So, if you are considering Photoshop, perhaps think about that as well.

Have an opinion of my project? Have a favorite Photoshop tutorial/tip? Please feel free to share in the comment section.

Cheers!