This picture that I made on Adobe Photoshop, has one main meaning. As the text says, life is to live. You have to try new experiences, live to learn and learn to live. The blue man running toward the rainbow light represents all of the people willing to try out new things, those who never give up and keep going, regardless of what the situation is. The sad eye in the corner looking at the running man symbollizes all of those who have given up after a faliure, watching as others succeed, while they can't help but feel sorry for themselfs. The text in the photo is a quote that I thought suited the picture, since the subject was about life and its experiences. Lastly, the rainbow light represents everyones dreams and hopes. So far away, yet those who try hard enough to reach it, will eventually. It is my first time composing a picture, although it isn't the best, I'm proud to have finished it.



Montage for Photoshop Work Flow

step 1.) open the file you want to use as your background. [make sure its a solid color/image, that makes it easier to work with]

step 2.) set your canvas to the size you want, big sizes are recommended [its easier to shrink a picture, than make it bigger. . . better quality]*

step 3.) even out the picture with the canvas, you wouldn't want a huge canvas and a tiny picture*

step 4.) pick as many images as you want for your collage

step 5.) once you set all of the images to the same size* start thinking of ways to put them together so that they complement each other

step 6.) name the layers if you want [right click the layer, properties, insert the name you prefer.]

step 7.) if your image has a lot of extra space that you don't want, use the "crop" tool, very useful to remove big spaces

step 8.) use the "moving" tool to move the image you want, over to the background layer.

step 9.) if there's STILL more extra space, there are two ways to remove it, use a layer mask, or just erase directly from the layer.

step 10.) to erase, make sure you choose the right sized brush for the situation, if your anxiety on accidentally erasing your image, just lower the opacity of the eraser

step 11.) to use a layer mask you must go to Layer, the Layer mask is the 12th one down the list of options

step 12.) if you use text in your collage, to give it a nicely faded effect use the eraser tool

step 13.) depending on how bold the letters are, change the opacity of the eraser, to give it a nice effect

step 14.) make final adjustments to your collage

step 15.) your done! [don't forget to save!!]





* to change the image/canvas size, go to "image" on the main [grey] tool bar. once you click, it should be the 6th option to change the image size.
follow the same step to change the canvas size, except it is the 7th option.

make sure all of your sizes match up. try to avoid blurriness.