Merged Image
I believe that good photographs tell a story or create a mood or feeling. Sometimes, it is not possible to tell a story with a single image. In this article we will explore using multiple images to describe a single event or tell a story. Before you can merge your images, however, you'll need to adjust size, white balance and color balance. To find out do this, please reference my article "Prepare Images for Merging into a Photo Montage" (see Resources below). Then proceed on with this article to learn put them together.
Instructions
1. Create a new image with the dimensions of one of the single images prepared for merging. In this example I am using GIMP, but you can use other imaging editing software like Adobe Photoshop to create photomontages.
2. Select and open your images as layers. In GIMP this will open each image and place them in the NEW image you just opened. It will place each image layer on top of the previous layer. If you do not use OPEN AS LAYERS, GIMP will open each image in a new and separate window.
3. Each layer is tacked on top of the other. The image on top is the last layer that was opened. Notice the yellow dotted line, which frames the active layer. Before you can arrange the layers, you need to expand the canvas to be large enough to contain the images. Note the size of each image and adjust the canvas size to contain the images with a border around each, so that they are separated.
4. After you have expanded the canvas, each image can be moved to the proper position by simply dragging it and placing it in the proper spot. Use the grid and rulers to line up each image to the exact desired position in the montage.
5. After you have placed the images in the proper spot it is time to save your image. Remember to pick a unique name and save the image to the proper directory on your computer.
6. The final image tells the story. You can experiment with different color backgrounds by adding a background color to the canvas. You can also adjust the canvas size so the images have no space between them, but for this series I liked the black background and the separation between the images.
