Tutorial

Window Collage Tutorial:

This is an intermediate sort of tutorial, geared towards those who are already relatively familiar with Photoshop 4.0. Since there's a lot of little steps to this, I may gloss over some steps, assuming that one is already familiar with certain things. If there's anything you don't understand, refer to the key, and there should be something in there which will clear things up. If not however (oh no!), you can choose Help-->Search for Help on... from Photoshop's top menu. Trust me, once you run through graphics like this a couple times, it'll be easy as pie and you'll be wondering why it took so much space to explain such a simple thing. Ready?
I'm using small versions of the photo here, but the larger finished version of this image can be seen here.

Here are all the layers which will end up being used to combine into the finished image.

To access the layers window, you choose Window-->Show Layers from the top menu. The three buttons along the bottom of this window are, left to right, the add layer mask button, the create new layer button, and the delete current layer button. The create new layer button will create a new layer if you click on it once, or duplicate a layer if you drag and drop the desired layer onto it. The delete current layer works by clicking it when the layer to be deleted is highlighted, or by dragging the layer to be deleted onto it. To work in a specific layer, click once on that layer in the layers window to make it the active layer.

	I'm going to start out with a photo I want to manipulate. I'm going to use filters and some collage-techniques to manipulate the whole image and to put new images inside the tiny slides and the camera lens seen reflected inside the larger slide I'm holding in this image.
	The first thing I'm going to do with it is copy the first layer and then use the sumi-e filter on it, fading the filter until I achieve the desired effect.
	However, I prefer for the reflected image inside of the large slide to not be affected by the filter, because I want it to be a little more clear what is being seen in there. So I could duplicate the original bottom layer again so that it is below the sumi-e layer, then on the sumi-e layer erase inside of the large slide so that the original layer showed through, then merge the two layers together. But because I'm not entirely sure if I'll want to stick with the sumi-e effect, I'm going to do something a little different. I'm going to erase the inside of the large slide from the sumi-e layer, and call it the "slide frame" layer, and leave it as is, so that I can do the detail work on a copy of the original image, and use whatever filtered version I like best to lay over it like a window mat, with the inside of the frame cut out.
	On a copy of the original layer, I'm going to erase inside of several of the tiny reflected slides and inside the reflection of the camera lens. Now I just need to find some images to place under this layer so that they look as if they are the reflected slides and the reflection inside the camera lens. Instead of going for realism, of course, I'm going for something somewhere in between realism and surrealism. I'm going to copy and paste several images I like into this file, scale them down and rotate them by choosing Layers-->Transform-->Free Transform and scaling them down and rotating them until they look somewhat realistic. Because I thought some people might like to have an idea of what the original images I used for this look like, I've made a page of the "reflected" images.
	Here is what just the finished scaled and rotated images underneath the top image look like. (This is from the larger image, as opposed to the small version I'm using for the other example pictures to save space.) If I want to add a little "noise" on top of this to tone them down, I can copy the sumi-e filtered layer and put it on top of everything at 11% opacity so "dull" things down just a bit. Since that darkens up the image inside the lens more than I like, I'll erase the inside of the lens from the 11% opacity layer.
	And finally, showing all layers and flattening the image, this is the end product. Obviously, this is a lot more meaningful if one is familiar with the images used or the images used are larger, and easier to see. If you'd like to get the full effect, check out the page of the "reflected" images and the large version of this image. Still, you'll find that this would be a stronger image if the tiny scenes were a little clearer or larger. This is very much what one would call "personal" work, work geared towards myself being the primary viewer. But I had the .psd file for it, and it seemed like a good example of what I think of as "window collages", so I decided to use it for this tutorial. Perhaps it will also show everyone that what seems clear to you may not be clear to someone else who is not as familiar with the building blocks you have used in an image.

tutorials index | key | page of the "reflected" images | large version of final image

The Secret Pond | Dreaming Among the Jade Clouds | Ginkgo's Pile of Leaves

© All images are copyright 1998 American Geographics and Jade Leaves Designs or are © Adobe Photoshop
Screenshots from Adobe Photoshop are used only to illustrate and explain concepts described in these pages.