Using Photoscape & Making Photo Collages

Quite often I get comments on my photo-collages.
"How did you do that...?"
"What programme do you use...?"

So here's the answer to your burning question...

How I make Those Cool Photo Collages.

Answer: Photoscape.
Beautiful wonderful easy-to-use, free-to-download Photoscape.
I am so sorry if you are a Mac user. I cannot help you because... finally there's something Windows has that a Mac doesn't!
Photoscape is only for Windows. Sorry. Take that up with the designers. Because really? I've looked around and there doesn't seem to be anything else with Photoscape's features. For Mac. Or Windows.
It's the best photo editing programme Ever.

So go download it for free here, Windows users.
Mac Users. I'm sorry. I got nothing for ya. Head on back to camp.

{Sorry I've been watching Survivor. Got a little carried away...}

Collages are not only useful and beautiful in Blogs - but can also be used to make the most gorgeous printed PhotoBooks. So even if you're not a blogger, keep reading. Photoscape could come in really handy round Mothers Day...

After you install Photoscape open it up and you will land on the above screen.

The three most important features are...

1. Editor: Lets you edit photos individually. Make them black and white, sepia, correct exposure, add frames, film effects, vignetting etc to photos individually.
2. Batch Editor: Lets you edit a bunch of photos at the same time. You can resize, apply a frame style, or a watermark, or a film effect to all the photos you want to use in a post. At once. A beautiful beautiful tool. I use this function on all the photos I plan to use in a post.
3. Page: This is where we make our fancy photo collages. Choose a layout, drag and drop photos into it, apply a frame style (e.g. rounded corners, vignetting) to the collage. Then save and upload it as a single photo. Too easy.

Lets take all the features a step at a time...

1. Editor
Here you will find all the tools you need to make your photos look special. You don't need to have a fancy camera to have your blog's images look amazing.

• First up, Resize. Find out how many pixels you need your blog images to be. Resize every photo to this size as soon as you get into Editor. (Click on the "Resize" button and a window will pop up where you can just type in the pixel width you want). Why do this? Because you'll have shorter upload times. And use up less storage space. And make your blog page loading time much faster. That's why.
• Next, click on the "Bright,Colour" button. Click, don't use the arrow/drop down menu. Clicking will bring up all the controls in a slider menu. All you have to do is play around with them until your photo looks how you want it. If you mess up, just Undo.

• Filter is where the fun stuff is. "Film Effect" lets you choose all kinds of cool and vintage photo styles like Cross Process or Agfa, Provia etc. (Don't like it? Undo!) Then there's Antique photo. Add cool scratchy textures to make your pics look ancient (and disguise a boring image). Vignetting adds a touch of class; a bit of shadowing round the edges. There's other arty effects too; like turning your photo into a pencil drawing. Just have a play and discover all you can do.

• Don't forget a Border. Even if you don't want anything fancy, why not just simply round the corners? Or add a shadow? (You'll need to make sure you don't have any borders selected on your Template Designer or it will look funny) My favourite right now is Round 03. It gives a softly rounded edge. Nice.

2. Batch Editor
Everything you can do in Editor, you can do in Batch Editor. Pretty much. Except that you do it to a bunch of photos at once, instead of just one at a time. This is a great tool for blogging. I can choose all the pics I might want to use for a post; resize them altogether, add a border and photo effects... and if I want to, a Watermark.

A Watermark is what you see on some people's photos which lets you know they own the photo. Stops people from right-click copying your images without giving proper attribution. Like this...

So if you are concerned about people pinching your pics, you can easily add a watermark in Batch Editor.

In Batch Editor click on "Object" as shown above.
Can you see where the arrow is pointing, top right?

Then select Text 1, 2 or 3 (check the box)... and edit the text and style by clicking on the little pencil next to it. See where I've written: "click to design watermark"? The arrow is pointing right at it.

Play around until you get it looking right on all the photos in the batch. When you are happy with it click "Convert all" and follow the prompts to save your files.

See? A nice batch of vignetted, round cornered, brightened, contrasted, watermarked photos.

Put into a collage.
Which is what you've been waiting for. Here we go...

3. Page (a.k.a. Collages!)

Collage-making in Photoscape is so simple.
Choose a layout from the list on the right.
Choose your photos from the list on the left (browse your computer)
Drag and Drop the photos into position.
Don't like it? Choose another layout. Or drop in a replacement photo.

So many uses for collages. So many layout options!

Technical Tips:
1. You change the size (in pixels) of the collage and its proportions by clicking on the acorn icon next to the "size" indicator. Play around with the percentages and proportions until it looks right. If you use extra-large photos in your blog layouts, your photos will need to be at least 600 pixels wide (150%)
2. You can add frames to give your photos an interesting edge. The best frames are the simple ones. Rounded or the rough-edged "cali" frames work best in collages.
3. You can increase or decrease the margin between photos, depending on what look you're going for.
4. If you want to give your collage a frame just around the edge (like in my collage at the top of this post), choose "No Frame" in the collage page. Then click "Edit" and add your border there, just to the outside. This is also where you add text.

 

5. In "filter" you will see some basic controls for exposure and effects. But I recommend doing any photo editing before making your collage. Just whatever you do, don't apply any frames in "edit" before bringing your photos in!! It will make your collage very messy with some frames being cut off in odd places.

***Vignetting tip: You can apply "vignetting" in "filter" which gives a nice internal shadow to each image's corners. Quite sweet, especially when using a rounded frame.

Now go and download Photoscape for free. Install and start playing. I look forward to seeing lots of fun collages and cool photos on your blogs :)


IF BLOGGY DIY ISN'T YOUR THING:
If doing this yourself seems too overwhelming, you can always take the easy way out and let me do it for you. Visit my Custom Blog Design page and request either a special custom designed button set (NZ$25) or an extra button in one of the styles pictured here (NZ$5 per button).
I can also create Headers, grab-buttons and even do a complete blog-design overhaul...



{P.S. If you're feeling eternally grateful right now... you can say *thankyou* by Following}

More Blog Tips...

• Bloggy DIY for Newbies and Wannabes
• Blog Tips & Tricks for a Delicious Blog
• Blog Tips: Making & Using Tabs (Pages)