NothingToDeclare

We always seem to forget how to create the Christmas collage, which goes on the Christmas card.
I end up having to re-discover how to use Photoshop (since we use it so rarely).
Yes, I know we’re using a hopelessly old version of Photoshop – but if we’re only going to use it once a year to make the collage …

• Starting The Collage
• Opening A Photo To Use
• Cropping A Photo
• Rotating A Photo With The Wrong Orientation
• Moving A Photo Into The Collage
• Repositioning A Photo In The Collage
• Changing Which Picture Is On Top
• Resizing Pictures In The Collage

1. Open Photoshop
2. menu “File | New”
   
3. This gives you a dialog box

   • Name it appropriately: “2009 Christmas Collage”
   • Enter the right size, probably 8″ wide x 5″ high
   • Enter 300 pixels/inch
   • Contents: White
   • Click OK
     

OPENING A PHOTO TO USE

1. menu “File | Open”
   
   
2. navigate to the photograph using the file dialog box
3. click “Open”
4. This should open the photograph in a window of it’s own, inside the Photoshop window

CROPPING A PHOTO

1. To crop a photo, do this before you move it onto the main collage
2. click on the marquee tool in the toolbar
   
   
3. drag the marquee on the part you want to keep
4. menu “Image | Crop”
   

ROTATING A PHOTO THAT HAS THE WRONG ORIENTATION

1. menu “Image | Rotate Canvas | ….” and pick the rotation you want.
   

MOVING A PHOTO INTO THE COLLAGE

1. AFTER you have cropped or rotated the photo
2. Click in the title-bar of the photograph, to make sure it’s the active one
3. On the toolbar, pick the “move tool”
   
   
4. Click on the background layer in the layers palette, and DRAG it onto the collage window
   
5. It is probably best to close the photo now, since you want to work primarily with the collage
   
6. Rename the new layer in the collage so you can find it easily -
   First click on the collage window so it is selected – a bold title means it is selected
   
7. Click on the newest layer in the layer palette, it’s probably named something like “Layer 1″ or “Layer 3″
   
8. Menu “Layer | Layer Properties”
   
9. Rename the layer so you can find it more easily
   
10. You will see the name is now changed in the layers palette
    

REPOSITIONING PICTURES IN THE COLLAGE

1. Later, with the “Move Tool” selected in the toolbar, you can drag this (or any other) photo around in the collage to position it properly.
2. Click on the collage to make it the selected document, if there is more than one document open.bold means selected
   
3. Pick the “Move Tool”
   
4. Click on the correct layer in the layers palette – this is where having renamed the layer is going to help you
5. Drag the photo around till you like it’s position

CHANGING WHICH PICTURE IS ON TOP

1. In the layers palette, pick the photo you want to send to the back
   
2. menu “Layers | Arrange | Send To Back” (notice how the color one is on top)
   
3. Afterwards, the one you sent to the back will be on the bottom
   

RESIZING PICTURES IN THE COLLAGE

1. To change the size of a photo on the collage:
2. menu “Edit | Transform | Scale”
   
3. shift-drag to the size you want using the corners only, because if you drag using the sides you will distort the photo. Not holding down shift while you drag will also distort the image.
   
4. when you’re done, click on the Checkmark at the top of the Photoshop window, which accepts and applies the transform