About the Course

Although photographers have long combined different photos to create new images, the digital darkroom has elevated the multiple-image collage to a new level. In addition to surreal fabricated realties or image blending to tell a story, the photographic collage is also uniquely suited to portray the more intangible world of ideas, memory and emotion. In this workshop, we will be using Adobe Photoshop CS3 to explore the multi-faceted art of the photographic composite. Our explorations will range from combining two or more exposures of the same scene to control contrast, to the creation of surreal, photo-realistic flights of fancy created from multiple originals.

Topics include:

• Essential selection, masking and knockout techniques
• Layers, Layer Groups & Layer Clipping Masks
• Simple collages based on image overlays, blending modes
• The Advanced Blending Options
• Precision collage control with Layer Masks
• Image transformation tools including Free Transform and Warp
• Using Smart Objects to preserve flexibility of transformed elements
• Creating a collage from different source photos
• Multi-exposure composites to control contrast
• HDR (high dynamic range) Imaging
• Matching color and lighting between images
• Photographic considerations for creating images specifically for a collage.

Who Should Take This Class:
This class is for photographers and artists who want to use Adobe Photoshop to create multiple image collages. This is not a workshop for Photoshop beginners and you should have a good working knowledge of the basics of Adobe Photoshop CS2 or CS3.