GRAPHIC TIPS & NEWS

This is a great way to present a photo when you want to portray a broken or fragmented look. It uses the concepts used at one point by fine and modern artists like Andy Warhol by the assemblage of individual snap shots, all taken of the same model, at the same time. It can be quite dramatic.
Reader example #1
Another reader suggested this example

We're going to show you hot to do both methods, random and organized. We'll also show how layer styles can be used, stroking inside and outside, as well as how to get a jump start using the slice method. That way you can make decisions based on which method is best for the project you're working on.
First: The Slice Method
Here we put Photoshop's SLICE function to work to make even divisions of the image a quick snap. Use this one if you plan to build a border outside the image slices, or you don't mind losing a bit of the image when you stroke inside the image.

First, we'll set up the file. This is a photo of a little girl, perfect for our Thanksgiving card. We'll set up the card to print at 300dpi, at 4.25 x 5.5 inches -- which is a standard card. We will reduce the image size a bit to allow room for borders, shadows and a textured background -- so we'll add about 100 pixels to both dimensions, using the Image > Canvas Size menu item.
















Begin the slice
Grab the Slice tool (tap 'K') and hover over the image. Right-Click for the popup context menu and select: "Divide Slice". A dialog will open where you can set "Divide Horizontally into 3 slices down..." and the same for vertically. Click Okay and it's done.

In order to actually assemble your project, you'll need all those split into layers. The fastest way to do that is to choose
File > Save for Web > and then set up your file attributes. I've set this one for "no optimization" and "BEST" quality, since I don't want to disturb the 300ppi, for printing.

When you click Okay, Photoshop will split the files apart and place them in a folder called "images" in the same directory you're working in. (I changed my name to "slice" and Photoshop auto numbered them for me.)

Bring slices together for your mosaic or collage

Now, simply select all those slice files and drag them over onto the Photoshop icon. They'll all open, one by one -- and you can quickly begin dragging each into the 300dpi work file using the MOVE tool. Don't bother about arranging them now, we'll do that later. After each drag, hit your keyboard command to close the slice file.

slices

Once you've brought all your files together, you'll see they've arrived on separate layers. Before arranging into your final grid, you'll want to set the layer style to get your photo border and drop shadow. This way, as you arrange the photos you can do so working with the shadows, etc.

setting the layer style

Since this is a large file, and the photo borders are only going to seal about 12 pixels from the edges of the photos, I'll go ahead and do an inside stroke to get the white border.

Open the STROKE Dialog now to see the settings. Notice the stroke is added to the inside of the layer image -- which effectively cuts off some image. Notice also it gives you a nice, sharp, cornet. (If we selected "outside" for the stroke, you would get a rounded corner -- not what we want here. I'll show you that one a little later.)

Now open the SHADOW Dialog to see my settings. Since these settings are dependant on your resolution settings, I'll not impose them on you. However, just adjust the settings until you get the effect you like.

Once your layer styles are perfect, you can replicate the same style to all the tile layers. There are various ways to do this -- however, I like to drag them one-by-one to watch as they affect each layer. Sometimes, after the second or third, I'll want to tweak it a bit, and bulk apply forces me to bulk remove.

Drag and drop the effect

Click the "Expand" arrow at the right of the layer in the Layers Palette to expand the styles. Now, simply hold in the Option key (Mac, Alt for Windows) click on the effect and drag the effect down to the next layer. You'll see it instantly applied. Repeat for each layer.

Add type and finish your photo mosaic card

Here's the finished card Finishing : at this point, I select all those layers and use the Layers menu to "group" the layers. This tucks them neatly away into a layer folder, getting them out of the way.

As you can see from this example, I've added a little Thanksgiving message, styled it, and also added a tan layer behind with the Texturizer filter set to a fine grain -- just for a little seasonal texture. Everything looks great, so I can save the file -- then flatten the file and save it again, using the Save As... to rename it and make it a TIF file for import into my awaiting Quark file.

At right, you can see my finished card.
Time elapsed: 20 minutes.
I've also provided you with the 300 dpi version, all ready for your Thanksgiving greeting, so you can have a little fun with it! (tgiving_card.jpg 1300 x 1650, 812K)

At this point, I must say that while this is by far the easiest and fastest method, I may not like the way the white borders cut into my image. I think I would also like a little more randomness to the tiles on the design.
Manual slicing for a mosaic or collage

As you saw before, slicing is fast and easy. It also divides the image perfectly, with Photoshop doing all the math necessary to split the image in as many cells or tiles as you want. We used the "Inside" method of stroking -- but it cut off parts of the image. In order to use the 'outside' method, the slice function won't work. We'll have to cut them out manually.

Not being particularly fond of math, I usually divide images using this little trick. It won't take but a minute.

Dividing the image

Draw a square shape into a new layer. Here I drew one, filled it, and then set the opacity for about 80% so I could still see my image. I used the Move tool to Option/drag (Alt/drag) the second, and third squares. Then I did the same to drag copies of each row until I created a grid of nine squares.

Pop open the grid.

Now, I will carefully select each tile, using this grid, but select outside the image rectangle to compensate for the width taken by the "Stroke Inside" layer style. This gets a little tedious.

Selecting oversized rectangle

Upon making the selection using the Marquee tool, I click the original image, and float a copy of that selection to its own layer. Float by hitting Command/J (Control/J). The tile on its new layer will be de-selected, so Command click its thumbnail in the layers palette, return to the original image, and still using the Marquee tool, move the selection alone (without image) to select the next tile.

Selecting oversized

After moving the selection rectangle to the next position, again, return to the original image layer and float a copy of that selection to its own layer. Walk your way through the file until you've picked up all nine tiles. If you view them all at the same time, you should see a seamless copy of the original image.

Once you have all nine tiles lifted to their own layers, you can turn of the view of the original, set layer styles and duplicate styles as described in the previous section.

This adds another 20 minutes or so to the time, but in my opinion, makes the finished piece better. The images look as if they would match up.

Now, if you don't mind rounded corners on your images, you can use the Slice method, and simply set the Stroke style to the outside rather than inside...

finished

Above, you can see the impact of rounded corners. If these are okay, then use the slice method and set the Stroke style to the outside. Notice here, I've also played with the layout a bit, slanting or tilting the images to give the presentation a more casual look. I think the rounded corners add to that as well. At this point, you know the technique -- it's just your call as to how to apply the stroke.Click to see an enlargement.