Building a Compound Image

A collage (or composite) is produced by combining several images or parts of them to produce a new image. Another idea, shown above,  is to repeatedly duplicate a layer and combine the duplicates in various ways

A montage is usually a greyscale compilation but the terms seem to be sometimes interchangeable.

If each element in the layout is kept on a separate layer, editing and changing is much easier and all the properties of layers are available.

Create a new image of a suitable size or open a suitable image that will form the background for the collage. Portions of other images will be added on top of this and then they will be arranged, resized, rotated and altered as desired.

There are many ways to add images to a Collage

Copy an image (or a selection on it) and paste it as a new layer above the background.

Copy an image or a selection on it and paste it into a selection of any shape on to a new layer

Copy an image or a selection on it and paste it into a template / frame.

Duplicate layers and move the content.

Drag a layer from the layer palette onto the background image.

Paint with a pattern.

Use the Clone Tool to paint onto a new layer from the same or a different open image.

Remember, Text is an Image too.

Manipulating the Layers

Work on each layer to:-

Alter the stack order

Move and rotateimages

Layer Opacity

Layer modes

Layer Styles

Adjustment layers

Masks

These images were all created from a selected rose and an image of a bed of pink flowers,

The pink image was used as a background and then the rose added as a new layer

The rose layer was repeatedly duplicated and then each layer was moved to create the circle

The background was copied and placed as the top layer and then the layer mode was changed to give various combinations and some effects were applied.

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This image was created from selections of many flowers that were added as new layers and manipulated as desired.