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Home: Video University Forums: Wedding & Event Videography:
Photo Montage question

X-Philip
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Apr 24, 2003, 9:19 AM

Post #1 of 4 (1069 views)
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Photo Montage question	Can't Post

I noticed in a critique of someone elses montage it was mentioned they didn't like seeing the sides of the photo with black filled in. The responder mentioned scanning at a higher resolution so the original photo could be cropped out. While I agree with this to an extent what about those photos which have been trimmed by the customer or are layed out in such a way where you need lots of the surrounding scenery to give the proper display of the photo. I am thinking of photos of people standing where the camera was tilted sideways to get a tall picture. What if they are standing on a rock formation with the ocean or a lake in the background. If you scan the picture at a high resolution so you can crop it properly to get their face you may lose most of the surrounding scenery needed to set up the shot. What do you do in these situations where there just is now enough photo provided. I assume for many of my customers a photo was given to me for overall beauty of the location they were photographed in and not just for the face. I have been making lots of montages for people where many of the pictures came from scrap book and have been trimmed right down to the people's bodies. Any suggestions.
So far all of my montages have been simple basic versions for customers where this was not an issue. I have a few higher class ones coming up where I will include some panning and zooming and was wondering how to solve this problem. Everyone has been very happy with them so far but I would love to make them that much better.
Philip

X-Doug_Graham
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Apr 24, 2003, 10:20 AM

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Re: Photo Montage question	Can't Post

I have a simple technique I use to build a "frame" for photos that don't fit the video aspect ratio.
1. Open new Photoshop file, 720x540.
2. Import scanned photo, paste into new layer.
3. Size as needed.
4. Use the eyedropper tool to pick a color for your frame from the scanned image.
5. Using an ellipse or rectangle tool, select the portion of the photo you want framed.
6. Invert the selection and open a new layer.
7. Using the bucket or gradient fill tool, fill the selected area.
8. Add a noise texture for more visual interest.
9. Flatten the image and save.
When you do this, there's a tendency to frame as little as possible, and leave the most image you can. This can be counterproductive, since not all of your frame will appear on TV, due to overscan. Make sure the frame area falls within the "title safe" area of your image. Otherwise, you may just get a bit of one edge of the frame showing, which will look like a mistake rather than something intentional.
Regards,
Doug Graham

X-George_Loch
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Apr 24, 2003, 4:46 PM

Post #3 of 4 (1069 views)
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Re: Photo Montage question [In reply to]	Can't Post

I fall in the category where I like the photo to fill the screen but, there are cases where it is simply not possile. I like to make sure that I have a background(not just black) so it still 'feels' like the screen is filled. I like to do a slow moving, opacity-faded photo of the couple or the subject. Another approach I have done is a some kind of background texture from something like the couples engagement photos with a title (ie "Jan and Jim - 2/14/03".
I just am very graphically-minded so, I like to make sure my 'canvas' is being utilized.
GL

: I noticed in a critique of someone elses montage it was mentioned they didn't like seeing the sides of the photo with black filled in. The responder mentioned scanning at a higher resolution so the original photo could be cropped out. While I agree with this to an extent what about those photos which have been trimmed by the customer or are layed out in such a way where you need lots of the surrounding scenery to give the proper display of the photo. I am thinking of photos of people standing where the camera was tilted sideways to get a tall picture. What if they are standing on a rock formation with the ocean or a lake in the background. If you scan the picture at a high resolution so you can crop it properly to get their face you may lose most of the surrounding scenery needed to set up the shot. What do you do in these situations where there just is now enough photo provided. I assume for many of my customers a photo was given to me for overall beauty of the location they were photographed in and not just for the face. I have been making lots of montages for people where many of the pictures came from scrap book and have been trimmed right down to the people's bodies. Any suggestions.
: So far all of my montages have been simple basic versions for customers where this was not an issue. I have a few higher class ones coming up where I will include some panning and zooming and was wondering how to solve this problem. Everyone has been very happy with them so far but I would love to make them that much better.
: Philip

X-velma
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Apr 25, 2003, 6:26 AM

Post #4 of 4 (1069 views)
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Re: Photo Montage question [In reply to]	Can't Post

I don't see how you can keep from having black on the sides with vertical pictures. Does scanning at a higher resolution give you "stuff" on the sides? Either I don't understand your question....or I'm completely lost (as opposed to mostly lost like I always am!). Unless you do some type of patch technique like Doug suggested....scanning at a higher resolution only gives you a bigger picture. It doesn't change the shape of the picture....does it?
velma
: I noticed in a critique of someone elses montage it was mentioned they didn't like seeing the sides of the photo with black filled in. The responder mentioned scanning at a higher resolution so the original photo could be cropped out. While I agree with this to an extent what about those photos which have been trimmed by the customer or are layed out in such a way where you need lots of the surrounding scenery to give the proper display of the photo. I am thinking of photos of people standing where the camera was tilted sideways to get a tall picture. What if they are standing on a rock formation with the ocean or a lake in the background. If you scan the picture at a high resolution so you can crop it properly to get their face you may lose most of the surrounding scenery needed to set up the shot. What do you do in these situations where there just is now enough photo provided. I assume for many of my customers a photo was given to me for overall beauty of the location they were photographed in and not just for the face. I have been making lots of montages for people where many of the pictures came from scrap book and have been trimmed right down to the people's bodies. Any suggestions.
: So far all of my montages have been simple basic versions for customers where this was not an issue. I have a few higher class ones coming up where I will include some panning and zooming and was wondering how to solve this problem. Everyone has been very happy with them so far but I would love to make them that much better.
: Philip