Montage layout/design

[Ross]

I hope you don't mind me asking here, as the photos in question were taken with a Fuji point and shoot, not the S2, but can anyone offer any advice on where to start with a montage?

I have a pile of shots, taken at EuroDisney, that are virtually unuseable as they stand, all including Disney characters but with cluttered and confusing backgrounds. I wanted to cut the characters out (which I have managed) and make up a montage of them, possibly using a shot of the castle as a background, but find that I don't know where to start, and the result is truly awful.

Are there any forums or books I could consult?

Ross

[sandman]

Ross have you scrolled down this thread , Tom Voegeli has a montage tutorial down there.

Brian

[Ross]

Hi, Brian,

yes, thanks - my problem here isn't so much technique as lack of artistic ability - I don't know where to start with designing the thing...

Ross

[sandman]

Ross
The thing to do is not try too hard , let an idea just come , it's like writers block . forget about it for a while and then it might hit you.

What i do for mine is take a central image ,the whole theme ,forget the background ,make it a plain pastal colour for now , cut out smaller images , you can just do them rough for now , and play around with the placement and size , and dont forget to change the opacity in some of them don't have them all the same , make some or all ghost like.
After you've got them as you like you can change the background , to whatever colour or picture fits.
I'm hopeless at explaining things in print but i think you get a general idea of what i mean.

Brian

[Ross]

thanks Brian :-)

[sandman]

no trouble . i've just re-read my answer ,and even i can't follow it let alone anyone else, as i said ...hopeless

Brian

[Ross]

well after years of dealing with my own incomprehensible ramblings, it made sense to me :-)

I've also had a new idea - I might try taking one of the crowd scenes and replacing the people with the Disney characters...