Try Different Looks

This final picture also will be ideal for posting to a Web site, since everything you do to prepare it for email transmission also make it easier to download over the Web.

Relax and have fun while shooting. Take lots and lots of pictures, and don't worry about whether your shots will be "good enough." Remember that these are probably not going to end up as framed pictures that someone will keep forever. Your collage doesn't have to be "picture perfect" in order to fully convey the experiences you wish to share.

Tom's Process:
It is easy to push around photos this way to try different looks.

• Am I arranging things symmetrically or randomly? Try both - nothing to lose.
• Take one or two shots and remove the background. This adds a little variety to the composition. Once the subject is isolated I feather the edge a pixel or two so the edge isn't so harsh.
• Once I get the pictures arranged the way that I like I often merge them into one layer. Once this is done I make a copy of that layer, select its contents, fill it with a color, blur it, move it a titch, send it to the back. Voila! Now I have a soft drop shadow around all of the pictures.

Tom snapped this picture with the express purpose of using it for an interesting collage background.