Well, Hal, there are a whole lot of us who love using this software and find it very powerful, but the Help files do leave a lot to be desired. The answer to your question may be in there, but I couldn’t find it presented in a straightforward way either. If you’re a new Elements user you may want to invest in one of several good books written about the software. Also keep hanging around here. Collectively this is an extremely knowledgeable group of people who can get more out of Elements than what Adobe ever thought would be possible!
Now to your question. First edit the individual images you want in your composite. Make sure they’re all the same resolution, which would be somewhere between 150ppi and 300ppi if you’re going to print it. Leave these easily accessible, and maybe even open on your desktop if your system will handle that.
Make sure the Layers Palette is open on your desktop.
Next create a new background on which to place these images. Go to File>New. On that screen you can set the physical dimensions, the resolution – which should match the resolution of the images, and decide whether you want a transparent background, a white background, or a color that’s been preset in the Foreground/Background color area of your toolbar. Once you have everything set the way you want it, click OK. Leave this new canvas open on your desktop.
Open one of your previously edited images. At this point you can either drag and drop a copy of the image on to the new canvas or use the copy/paste method.
To drag and drop, select the Move tool, click and hold on the image to be moved and just drag it to the new canvas. Once it’s on there you can position it further with the Move tool.
To copy/paste, select the entire image to be moved using Control A (Command A if you’re on a Mac) then Edit>Copy. Click on the new canvas and do Edit>Paste. Personally I prefer drag and drop because it’s faster and requires fewer system resources – no big files stored on the clipboard.
Once you have all of the images moved to the new canvas, you can continue to use the Move tool to position them any way you want. Usually just clicking on the image you want to move will activate it so you can shove it around, but if for some reason you can’t grab it, go to your Layer Palette and click on the layer containing the image you want to move. That will select the layer so you can get a hold of it.
Once you have your creation looking the way you want it, print.
I also use this method most of the time if I want to print a number of different images on one sheet of paper, because I find it a little more flexible than using Picture Package. It seems complicated the first time or two, but once the learning part is over you can put them together very quickly.
Post back if you have more questions! We love getting new users addicted to Elements. 🙂
I’d like to add just a couple of points to Beth’s excellent instructions. After you have all of your images combined on to the "main" form you might find it necessary to adjust the size of some of the images. You can do this by selecting the appropriate layer and then going to the image menu and choose "Transform/Free Transform" and then just drag the corners or sides of your image until it is the size you need. If you hold down the Shift key while you do this, Elements will keep your image in the proper aspect ratio. Also, if you are overlapping images, you can move your layers up and down in the layer pallette until you have all of the edges and corners showing the way you want them to show.
Beth, both you and Jim seem to be saying that the images I drag onto the new canvas will each be on a separate layer. I think that is what you mean’t 🙂 My question is how do I make that happen. Beth you said I need the layers pallet open. What do I do with it?
Thanks for your replies!
Hal
As you drag each image onto the new canvas, it will be placed on a new layer automatically. In other words, Elements creates the layer for you. The reason you need to have the layer pallette open is because you can only work with one layer at a time (generally speaking). The active layer is highlighted in the layer pallette. To choose another layer to work with or to adjust, you simply click on the appropriate layer.
First of all, Hal, you don’t need to do anything specific to create the new layers – that will happen automatically when you drag/drop or copy/paste your images to the new canvas. As each one is moved, it goes creates a new layer for itself. Even though I didn’t include much in my instructions about making use of it, Jim’s excellent addition about the ability to change the order of layers would require the palette be open. It’s also handy to have it open if you’re going to shift any of the images once they’re on the new canvas. Usually you can just click on one, but every once in a while you just can’t get a hold of it if it’s partially hidden behind another image.
You can also rotate images through use of the Layer Palette, too. Sometimes when people create collages they like insert the images at an angle. To do this, click on the layer belonging the image you want to rotate and then go to Image>Rotate>and then look down the list and you’ll see the options to rotate Layers. The one you’d be most likely to use is Free Rotate Layer. You can come up with some great looking groupings by doing this.
I think if you take a small group of pictures (probably a good idea to make copies for experimenting!) and try this out, you’ll quickly see how it works. It sounds kind of confusing and a little mysterious when you’re just reading the instructions, but working with these features makes the process become more clear.
We’re glad you came back and asked for clarification. You’ll be doing this effortlessly in no time at all.
(Hey, Jim! Haven’t seen you around for a while. Whatcha been up to?!)
As you drag each image onto the new canvas, Elements will automatically put it on its own layer. The reason you need the layer, open is so that you can see which layer is "active". Generally speaking, you only work with one layer at a time, and you have to click on the appropriate layer in the layer pallette to make it the active layer.
Beth,
I have been working on a new database that has occupied a lot of my time lately. Also, I have been playing around with Photoshop CS. I’m really intrigued with a couple of the new features. Namely, the highlight/shadow adjustment, and the new photo filters. But I still enjoy the discussions in this forum. So I took a break from the database for a couple of days and thought I would look around a little bit.
Regards,
Jim
Great a database expert! I have been working on a database with about 20,000 images of trees that need to be sorted by size and lookup by growers, sellers and buyers as well as linked to QuickBooks Enterprise Edition and ACT customer management software. Any ideas or tips would be greatly appreciated. You can e-mail me at:
—
Have A Nice Day, 🙂
James Hutchinson
http://www.pbase.com/myeyesview http://www.myeyesviewstudio.com/ wrote in message
Beth,
I have been working on a new database that has occupied a lot of my
time lately.
Thanks, guys! That should do it until the next time 🙂
Hal
The detailed method works (and the only one in previous Photoshops perhaps). But have you looked at print package? You can customise it pretty easily if editing a text file does not put you off.
