The Extra-Strength Tips for the Clients and Friends of Ben Willmore (www.digitalmastery.com):

I bet you're surprised to get another tip this soon! Well remember, I'm trying to talk you into taking five minutes to fill out a survey for me and for doing that, you get this tip and one more next week. You'll find a link to the survey at the bottom of this e-mail. In this installment of my Extra-Strength Tips, I thought I'd tell you a little about how I think when I know I'm going to combine multiples images into a collage. I won't be talking about the actual techniques needed to blend images into seamless composites, rather I'll describe some of the overall thinking I use when approaching such a project. If you start approaching your collages this way, it might save you some time and grief while you're assembling your next masterpiece.

The first thing I do is create a new document that will be the master document that I use for my collage. I use the same size as what I want for my end result. I use the resolution that's required for the output device I have in mind (I cover that stuff in my book and videos), and if I'm not sure what I'll be using, then I'll generically use a setting of 300PPI because that's high enough for the vast majority of output devices out there and it doesn't harm the image to res it down at the end. At this point I'd save this document in Photoshop file format (a .psd file).

When I'm scanning images, I usually think about the largest I'd ever use the image I'm about to scan. I keep in mind that I might need to crop the image and that it's often easier to retouch an image when you have extra information available (more than what's needed to print the image). That's what I think of when using the scaling setting. When I scan an image, I use the same resolution setting that I chose for that new document I mentioned earlier.

If you know how to perform color correction using the eyedroppers or something like the Auto Color command (have to have it set up correctly first), then I'd perform color correction on each document before I attempt to combine them into a collage. Each image can have a different type of colorcast (one reddish, and another bluish maybe) so they will need adjustments that are specific to each unique problem.

Then, after I have color corrected all my images; I drag them over to my master collage file (using the Move tool) one at a time until I have them all in one file. I'd save that master file again and then close all the individual image files leaving just the master file open.

You might notice that some of the images you drag between documents appear to change size by the time they end up in the master file. All that means is that before you dragged an image onto your master file you had been either zoomed in or zoomed out on more or less than the master document you are dragging things into. Just look at the top of the document (or the lower left corner) and you'll find the magnification you're viewing it at. If you'd like to see how large the image will appear in your master document, just click on the percentage that shows up in the lower left corner of your image and enter the same number that shows up in the master file. Then, when you drag between documents, the image will remain the same size. It doesn't actually change the end result, but it might ease your confusion.

When you drag between documents, you might get a Paste Profile Mismatch warning, which is just Photoshop's way of making sure it does the right thing when two documents are set up differently color-wise. If you're creating web graphics and you're using web safe colors, then you should choose Don't Convert, but everyone else (95% plus of us I'm guessing), should just choose Convert. Convert simply tries to make your image look the way it did in the document it just came from. If you find those warnings to be annoying (I do), then choose Color Settings from the Photoshop menu in OSX or the File or Edit menu in other operating systems and turn off the Ask When Pasting checkbox near the bottom of the dialog box. After doing that, Photoshop will askt you one last time (the next time you drag between documents that are set up differently color-wise), but there will be a Don't Show Again checkbox that can make it your last warning. When you turn off those warnings, Photoshop will always use Convert, which is what you want (unless you're using web safe colors).

Next, I hide all but one of the images that I just dragged over (so I can see what I'm doing) and then scale and rotate them if necessary. To view a single layer, Option-click (Mac), or Alt-click (Win) on the eyeball icon to the left of that layer in the Layers palette. Then type Command-T (Mac), or Ctrl-T (Win) to start transforming the image. If the image is overly large and goes beyond the bounds of the master document, then type Command-0 (Zero) on a Mac or Ctrl-0 in Windows, which will zoom out enough so that you can see the handles that show up on the edge of the layer (which are beyond the bounds of the document you're working on). Then hold Shift to constrain the width and height proportions when you drag a corner to scale the image. Hold Option (Mac), or Alt (Win) if you'd like to pull in the opposite corner an equal amount. When you've got the image to the size you desire, press Enter to complete the transformation.

After you're done creating your collage (using Layer Masks and other features you can learn about in my book... hint, hint), then I Save and archive the image in Photoshop file format (so it keeps the layers). Then I choose Layer>Flatten Image to combine all the layers together. If I find that I need a different size or resolution than what my master file started with (maybe I actually figured out what output device I'm going to use), then I choose Image>Image Size, turn Resampling on and then make any adjustments I need.

At this point I sharpen the image (only after it's scaled to its final size). And then if I'm going to send it off to a commercial printing press (instead of my desktop inkjet), then I'll convert it to CMYK mode. That's because you'll get a better result when converting to CMYK if you flatten the image first. And if I'm Photoshop savvy enough to know how, I'll sharpen the black channel to get a little extra pop in the image (just click on the black channel in the Channels palette, sharpen, and then click on the CMYK channel). Finally, I'll save the image as a TIFF (unless I have a good reason to use a different format) as my final file.

I always end up with two files: my master file in RGB mode with layers saved in Photoshop format, and my final file, which is flat, scaled down to it's final size, sharpened and saved as a TIFF. That way I can always get back to that layered file to make changes and I can resave it at a different size or in a different mode for any other use in the future.

Whew!... that was one long tip! Remember, I'm trying to convince you into spending five minutes to go fill out a survey for me. If you're willing, please visit http://www.digitalmastery.com/survey/ And as an extra bonus for taking the time to do that, I've just posted a five-page article on using Adjustment Layers on my web site at www.digitalmastery.com/companionsite/magazine

-Ben Willmore