Guatemala Collage

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First off, these ARE NOT my shots, I'm just putting a collage together for an office, so I take no credit for the pics.

I'd love feedback and critique on these as it's my second time to do a collage. I've done both color and black and white, the office wants bw, but I prefer color so they said give em versions in both. Which do you prefer, and please feel free to critique anything else.

These will be blown up 20x30 along with about 18 others that I'm doing...places on foam board with big display boxes and the title of the country. It's for a missions promotion and will be used for years to come..so they must be perfect, I don't want anything crappy with my name to it being displayed forever :lol: :) Oh and these will be used to get folks to want to go on mission trips (college students) so they have to do with the mission, but also stir some emotion as well...

Guatemala.jpg


GuatemalaBW.jpg
 
I think you have done a superb job of this collage, they show much detail, i prefer the colour version because it stands out better, but the b&w version works quite well too! good work putting them together amanda.
 
Personally I like what you did but if you make the center photo overlay all other layers I think you will get something much more powerful. Having anything on their faces distracts from their emotions. You may need to move some others around but not much. I like the color better.
 
Thanks guys :) I'll try overlaying the main photo and see what happens :)
 
Alright, the placement of the photos is great. You can look at it as if it is just one photo. I agree, the center photo needs to be on top of everything else.

[format=possible crazy advice]]OK, I may be completely wrong here, and it may be a crazy idea, but with the very subdued color you used on the outside photos, maybe an opposite selective color would be in order. B&W is so often used to bring out emotion, so it would be interesting to see the center one in B&W on a color background. (don't take that as an "If I were you, I'd...", it's more an expirament)[/end possible crazy advice]

OK, now, of these 2 I definately prefer the color one overall. Is the fabric that is between the girl with the hat and the one in the blue and red hirt part of either of those photos, or is it a third one? If it's a third one, I think I'd remove it, as it just seems a bit distracting. If it's part of the hat-girl shot, making the main photo more prominant and on top will help significantly.

Make sure to repost your edits here! :lol: Hope this helps!
 
Thanks Joe :) I knew you'd come through!

Your advice isn't so crazy...I was thinking of doing a version with the main photo color and the others black and white so I'll give yours a try :)

There are four photos in this...the main one, one to the left, right, and then top center...not sure which piece of fabric you're referring too...but I'll be sure and post the re edits tommorow when I finish them :)
 
Alright, I've worked on these this morning and here's what I've got.

I cannot make the main shot of the two girls overlay the others, b/c otherwise I"d have to drop the opacity of that one, and then it's not the main shot anymore, it would be even with the others. I could drop the opacity of the others if you all think it's needed though.

I emailed the office with these two examples last night and they really liked them, the color more so than the black and white. They liked the pics and the layout, so they're happy, but I decided to do your suggestion Joe and see what I got, and here it is:

Guatemalamainbw.jpg


I like this version, but I don't know if I like it was much as the first, so I'd appreciate any feedback. I also tried doing this the other way, leaving the main shot in color, but b/c of it being full opacity it didn't look right with the pic bleeding into the others...

Again thanks everyone for the help!
 
I adore the last one you've done and I would really love to know how you did it!!

I enjoy trolling around this forum.....but GOD it makes me realise how much further behind I am than most of you guys :hail:
 
Thanks :)

It's actually really easy even though it looks complicated. Choose 3 or 4 shots you want to combine together. Open the first and use it as your background layer, or you can make a new project and use black as a background layer, and then paste your main image on top of that. Then choose one of the other pictures, get it to the size that you want, and add it as another layer, and do the same for last shot as well. Then take one of your shots (not the main one) and apply a layer mask, then choose the gradient tool, and selected the third gradient from the left, and then put it on one edge of the photo and drag to the middle part of your photo. This will blend it together. Do the same for your other photo. Then adjust the opacity of each layer to get the blending you want.

Hopefully that makes since, it's easy to do but hard to explain in words. If you're interested in PS and learning techniques like this, pick up a copy of Scott Kelby's book "the phooshop cs book for digital photographers" that's where this technique camer from and there are lots of great tips other than this as well :)
 
I think I like this version the best. I still wish the center photo were on top, maybe doing a lasso thing on it with some major fading of the edges? Who knows.

The black and white really gives the collage more of a focal point, and it helps a ton. That piece of fabric I was talking about is less distracting too, because there isn't a competition between the patterns. Nice work, keep us posted ;)
 
Thanks Joe :) The guy I'm doing this for is a PS guru himself, so I'm supposed to meet with him tommorow and I'm sure he'll know a way to fix it up :)
 
i really like them all....but the first is still my favorite...this is really a great collage..

man, i am so impressed....great job, girl...alot of hard work and it shows...
 
Hey, great collages you've put together. I really like the first one you posted, its vibrant and stands out a mile, if you're wanting to mix with black and white, then maybe try the smiling girl on the left, as i don't know, it just doesn't seem right to me to have the main characters in the front black and white. This however is a non professional idea :lol:
 
Thanks everyone. I think the office is choosing to use the color version as well b/c it will stand out a lot more.
 

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