Steve George
Top Tips for Creating Photomontage that Wows Viewers
You must have come across images where you can view a smooth transition of events over a time period within a single frame. On one photographic surface, many viewpoints can be depicted simultaneously. This is the magic of photo-montage.
Understanding Photo-montage
Photo-montage is a sequence of individual images pertaining to a common subject/ theme which are collectively arranged for the creation of a single photograph. Mobility can be added to photo-montage by incorporating video.
Our eyes are accustomed to seeing photos that have only one frame captured by the click of the camera lens. The sense of time is not conveyed by such a photograph. The position where the camera is directed is only captured. However, with photomontage, a series of photos can be showcased in a single image.
The constituent images of the photo-montage can be captured over different time periods. Photographer can capture the individual images at various locations. However, for achieving impeccable and seamless results, some caution must be exercised.
Photo-montages resemble cubism wherein there is not restriction on time or incorporated perspectives. You may have images relevant to a single subject or different interest points within the same artwork. The results would appear visually appealing if coherence of images is assured. Any imbalance in visual touch points can ruin the essence of this artwork.
Photomontage Facts
With the advent of photo montage software and mobile apps, you can easily disintegrate a single image to give an illusion of many photos in a series. This is against the spirit of real photomontage. Such popular software may result in visually charming and graphically attractive outcomes, but depth or artistic flair is missing in such flat photos.
Photo-montage may involve bringing together images that may not be related or are remotely related to each other.
Separating Photomontage from Collage
The origin of the term ‘collage’ is in French ‘Coller’ signifying glue. In collage, different works of art are juxtaposed for creating a unique photograph. It is similar to gluing different images on a flat piece of paper. Collage can bring under one frame many different things like photos, paintings, paper clippings, canvas, etc.
Photo-montage is like a collage of photographs and can be made with the same cut and paste technique. But photo-montage enjoys other advantages over collage. In earlier times, the photographer used to put films or transparent films together on the collage canvas and glue them together along with other forms of artworks.
The defining point between photo-montage vs collage is that collage can include different forms of artwork whereas photo-montage consists of only images. With the advancement of digital techniques, photo-montage can be created easily with software like Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom.
Developing Photo-montage Creatively
Image Source: WinBizSolutions
Photo-montage can be creatively developed from different genres of photography. You can take your creativity on a flight of imagination to come up with the best results. Invest quality time and practice incessantly to hone your skill of leveraging proven photo-montage techniques.
The art is different from stacking pictures together. Photo-montage is a creative form where you have to spend the time to produce results as immaculate as painting or sculpting.
For creating unique and personalized photo-montages, you would need a camera, computing device, printer, board, marker, roller, and glue.
Creating your First Photomontage
Start with a simple photo-montage and gradually build up on your skills. As you develop familiarity with the processes involved and devise a workflow pattern that suits you, you can unleash your imagination.
Subject Selection
1) Carefully assess and establish the objective behind creating the photo montage.
2) Don’t take inspiration from normal photography ideas.
3) Consider how spatial and time dimensions can be creatively expressed.
4) Choose a static subject or theme for initial photo-montage.
5) You may take photos of the subject multiple times for achieving perfection.
6) Refrain from choosing a moving subject as complexities would increase.
7) Start with something simple and embark on photo-montage creation
Planning
1) Chalk out ways to capture photos of the subject in a creative manner
2) Decide on the number of photos you want to use
3) Think out ways to remain thematically as closer to the subject as possible
4) Choose the camera lens carefully for capturing different shots of the subject
5) Go with a standard lens of 50 mm for ensuring ease of photo compilation
6) Refrain from the lens with a wider angle as distortions at images’ edges may surface
7) Rectifying such distortions can be a painful and tedious process
8) Your goal should be to develop a montage of 20-30 images in finalized versionCompilation can be difficult if the number of images are too high or too small
Photographing
1) Resort to creative photography ideas and capture photos in excess
2) Derive value from each captured photo
3) Mentally create a grid of your subject for following through.
4) This ensures that each aspect of the subject gets captured
5) Start from the corner shot of the subject.
6) Focus on overlapping the photos. When photographing from right to left, watch out some visual cue
7) The cue must appear near the left side of your composition
8) Capture the photo and then slide your camera to the left
9) Capture the next shot with the cue still featuring in the composition on frame’s right side
10) Emphasize on capturing photos which are overlapping in certain respects
11) All photos must not be in a straight line.
12) You can enjoy higher flexibility while laying out the photo montage
13) Abstain from taking a huge number of images
14) Try to cover all aspects of the subject and take a few pictures in excess
15) This would ensure that the best situational photos can be used
16) Individual photographs of each aspect of the subject should be captured creatively
17) This would allow for variation in the composition
18) You can consider photographing the subject or scene portion multiple times
19) Object captured many times can be put at different parts of the frame
20) Top, bottom or corner; changing positions would offer more options
30) More the options, better is the developed photo-montage
Managing The Images
1) Don’t go directly for printing of photos
2) Montage compiling should be done using Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom
3) Other imaging software can also be used
4) The basic motto should be to have images separately on multiple layers
5) All photos made on the computer must be loaded
6) Even if you encounter technical issues, never delete any photo
7) A distorted image can be used as a filler if needed
8) Choose the best set of images
9) Focus on photos that can charm onlookers in standalone mode
10) Keep all photos in a dedicated folder
11) Select the major set of photos carefully to complement your photo montage compilation
12) Visualize the edges carefully and choose suitable images
13) The composition should be filled properly with the right set of images
14) Images set aside for photo montage should be kept in a different folder
Resizing The Images
1) Photos should be resized based on the size ratio of finished photo-montage
2) Ideal resolution of photos is 300 dpi or dots per inch 300 dpi would ensure uniform size irrespective of the printing device.
3) Choose the number of photos carefully by considering the height and width of the proposed photo-montage.
4) Individual photos can also be resized for fitting in the proposed dimensions.
5) Always have a standard size to start with; you can modify the same later on.
6) Images should always be in .jpeg formats and compression aspect should be minimum.
7) Compression ratio would be dependent on the number of images.
8) The processing power of your device would also be crucial
You are now done with photo montage creation. You can share the same with your near ones to get their feedback and constructive reviews. The seamless manner in which individual images would blend together in the final photo montage would leave onlookers wondering if they are discrete files or a continuum. Digital version would be different in appearance compared to a handmade one.
You can analyze the work done by cubists and learn from them. You can explore the dimensions which you can bring in to your photography through a photo montage. If you are running short of time and want to produce spectacular photo montage within a short time, you must reach out to reputed photo post-processing company offering end-to-end photo editing services.