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PS Photographic Collages

As I’ve traveled to various cities, I have always picked a landmark that I would take lots of pictures of and then put them into a collage. I did this even before I had heard of Photoshop. I would print all of the individual photos and then glue them on top of one another to make the collage.

Once I learned Photoshop, I was able to do this digitally. This is one I put together of the Trevi Fountain in Rome. Yes, I realize I missed a couple spots. Also, my photos line up more in rows. It would look better if the photos were more random.

Recently I stumbled upon some work by an artist by the name of David Hockney and he takes these collages to an entirely new level. Take a look at his photographic collages.  He also created his collages before the advent of digital photography. You can examine some of his other artwork as well, but focus on these.

None of his are actual landmarks, but notice how he takes many (many more than I did on mine) photos and then puts them together to make sense of a scene using Photoshop.

You’ll see that he takes some photos horizontal, others vertical. Some photos overlap and some he leaves some space on purpose. And some photos are larger than others.

Print Photography

In the style of David Hockney, you will start by creating a "printed photo" collage. Choose your subject (can be a person or a well-defined place). Take 10-15 photos.  Consider the shooting techniques he used:

  • straight forward images
  • showing image over time
  • different perspectives in one image

You will use Photoshop to resize these all into 4x6 photos (or as close to that dimension as you can get without cropping your photos). You can do some color correction on them as needed before you send to the printer.

You'll cut each photo out neatly and then use glue to put them together into the collage.

Photoshop Collage

Now that you have the basic idea, I want you to explore some Cubist Photography.  This time you will create another collage using Photoshop to glue it together.

This scene should be more detailed than your previous one because you need to shoot AT LEAST 50 photos. Yes, 50+!!!

I suggest that you start in the top left corner and work your way over and down until you finish at the bottom right of the scene. Make sure you overlap when taking your pictures. Zig-zag a bit so that your photos aren't all in rows. Your collage should have a strong focal point.

  1. Download all of your photos to a specific folder so that you don't lose any.
  2. Create and run a PS action that will make some auto color corrections, resize and put a stroke around the edge of the photo | Video Instructions
  3. Create a new PS file, size 18 x 24 inches, 300 ppi,  choose portrait or landscape depending on what your scene is.
  4. Drag all of your photos onto your new document, you might want to do a few at a time so the computer doesn't lag.
  5. Rearrange your photos so that they overlap in the right places
  6. Save as #_Lastname_cubist_collage.PSD

Turning it in...

Turn in your properly named PHOTOSHOP file to the Campus Share Drive > Samuelson_Drop folder.

Then, add the following post at the TOP of the Photoshop page of your ePortfolio.

  1. Title of the Challenge
  2. Then answer these questions:
    1. Explain Cubism (the artform, not the country)
    2. What has David Hockney been doing lately with his works?
    3. Why did you choose the scene you did?
    4. What are your thoughts after completing this challenge?
  3. Upload and embed the JPG underneath the questions. Please don't resize less than 500 px.