Hi Tim,
If you do a Google search on "photomosaic", you’ll find links to companies providing software to facilitate creating this type of image, and some how-to info. In general though, yes, special software is typically used for this task.
Regards,
Daryl
I heard of an artist that copyrighted the approach a while ago (he used software too). I laughed. I dunno about the rest of us.
Hi Tim,
I tried a bunch of them, and this one is the best I’ve found. I’ve done a lot of posters using it, and printed them out to 13×19, so it works easily in large sizes:
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Hi guys thanks for the responses. Katherine Mazaika looks like it functions really well. Have you purchased a full version? You definatley think this is the best out there?
Danny thanks for the tutorial. Looks like it gives me another option.
Hi Tim,
Yeah, one of the reasons it is the best is because you can customize your mosaic by swapping photos after it’s done if you think you’ve got a better match.
There also is a thing to decide how much you want the colors of the little photos to match the big mosaic.
There are examples on his website.
I do have the full version, then he asked me to beta test the newest version, and sent me the key for that for free.
To make the mosaic, you choose the image you want for the picture, then you choose a folder where you have put all the images you want to make up the mosaic. You will probably want to put a bunch of small images in that folder, (resized from the originals), so it will load faster.
These mosaics take a really long time to generate, so I usually do them over night, or when I plan on being gone for a whole day.
They are really an excellent quality, and this program uses far fewer repeats than the others I have tried. (It uses all the images in my folder rather than just a few).
I had one program which only used about 20 photos for the mosaics, even though I had about 300 in the folder, and that program was the one I liked second best after this one.
Thanks Katherine, looks like Ill lash out on the $49.95US I had a play with the trial, I was quite suprised at how fast actually the mosaic was generated, took like 10 seconds. That was for a 60×60 tile set. Yeah I dont think the trial has that option with getting the colors to match a lot better.
I had quite a colorful library being applied to a rather greyish image and it turned out very colorful.
In my trial I could only save at 75% quality, I presume you can save at 100% in the full version. Thanks for your help, it is much appreciated.
Good luck with it, it’s really fun! And the resulting prints sell very well!
Kathi
I bought MGI PhotoSuite specifically because it does this, and it does it quite well.
this is a great thread. my kid’s doctor’s office has a few framed posters of this type done with disney images that i just noticed the other day. wonderful!
My question is (for those of you already using such programs) is how do they print? How do you print them? Large scale to a printer and make them poster size? 8×11 on ink jets? How do they look? Are they "framable and displayable"?
Hi Dave,
I usually print mine at 13×19, but have printed a few at 8×10.
Yeah, I mat and frame them, and they sell very well!
When you save them, (I think they save as .bmp, but haven’t done one for a while, so it’s hard to remember), then just open them in Photoshop and print them as you would any photograph!
are the source images as individuals viewable at 8×10? hows the quality?
The quality is excellent. You can choose the size of the source images, so yes, they are viewable at 8×10 if you choose a large enough size.
I print at 13×19 because at that size your final image is "finer" because the number of source images is more. (I use the same size for the tiny images no matter which size my print will be).
On the ones I do, the images are identifiable, but using a magnifying glass helps to really see them.
It is sort of a trade-off between having it look like a photograph, or having it look like a mosaic.
Each tiny print is photographic quality, and the large image looks like a photograph from a distance, but as you get closer, you begin to see the small images, and the print itself begins to look like a mosaic, although it is still recognizeable.
It is a personal decision on just how realistic you want the final image to look, and how visible you want the tiny images to be.
My little images are each about one quarter of an inch high, by half an inch wide.
(Gee, this thread has nothing to do with Photoshop, except that I use Photoshop to resize my images and print out the photograph. I’m glad no one has complained yet).
What printer do you use for the 13×19’s Katherine? Also have you ever taken them to a shop to print larger?
Epson Stylus Photo 1280. No, I’ve never taken them to have them printed, most of my work is pretty much one-of-a-kind. I don’t advertise it that way in case I print something out twice, but I seem to have so much stuff I want to print that I’ll never get to it all as it is.
I don’t get much housework done, but I sure do take a lot of pictures and play with a lot of stuff on the computer!
Right now I’m working on a poster of the wildflowers here on the island.
My Photoshop fix still hasn’t gotten here, and it’s been over a week now. Probably because we don’t have DHL here, so they’ve probably farmed out the delivery to someone, and I have to wait until that company decides they feel like driving all the way here. Sometimes that can take weeks. (Fedex does the same thing, but at least they are listed in the phone book so you can call them). So anyway, I ‘m still working in PS 6.01.
wrote in message news:…
Hi guys thanks for the responses. Katherine Mazaika looks like it functions really well. Have you purchased a full version? You definatley think this is the best out there?
You can compare it with Mosaic Creator
http://www.aolej.com/mosaic It is most featured mosaic tool
