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9.3. Photoshop Features Especially Useful for Making Montages
Making montages can be much more complex than making collages because the
bits and pieces of photos that make up the whole have to look as though they were
all photographed in the same place and at the same time. That is, the angle of
lighting of objects in the background photo has to match in the lighting of the
imported objects. So does the color temperature, the perspective, and the angle of
view of each imported object. To make matters worse, it is often impossibleor at
least impracticalto find photos that are an exact match. This section will show you
some Photoshop features that help you credibly fake the appearance of the
matching photo. Especially notable among these features are the new Warp and
Smart Object.
9.3.1. The Smart Object Advantage
Smart Object is a new feature in Photoshop CS2 that can go a long way toward
minimizing the horrendous degree of destructive editing that traditionally occurs
when combining photographs. The basic idea of the Smart Object is that one image
can be used in multiple documents or places in the same document without ever
really being there. The Smart Object is simply stored in its own file (which
acquires a PSB extension) and mathematically referenced to as the needed changes
in appearance happen when that image appears in another place. Moreover, there's
no limit to the number of other places in which it can appear. You could, for
instance, have a whole flock of birds flying across a sky in different sizes and
rotational and transformational attitudes. Even after all this, nothing has really
happened to the original image of the bird.
NOTE
Smart Object maintains this nondestructive editing capability as long as you don't
change the bits in the image, which presently only can happen by converting the
layer back into a bitmap or changing the original image's bitmap. Operations that
can occur only on a rasterized or bitmapped image include most filter effects,
painting on the image, and changing the adjustments in the image itself. However,
when it comes to making adjustments or adding effects, you may be able to simply
add a Blend Mode or adjustment layer to the Smart Object as a Clipping Layer, so

that you don't have to affect the Smart Object itself.
I knowit sounds too good to be true. Figure 9-4 shows one portion of one Smart
Object that has been combined into a sort of supernatural kaleidoscope. All of the
pieces of this kaleidoscopic image are layers derived from the same Smart Object.
Figure 9-4. Warping the Smart Object into the desired shape.
9.3.1.1. Warping a smart object
Another new feature of CS2 that can have a positive impact on making composites
(whether they be collage or montage) is a new Options Bar choice for Freeform
Transformations that allows you to actually warp the shape of the image. Click the
new Warp icon on the right side of the Options bar and you'll be switched to warp
mode. You can see the Freeform Transform Options Bar in warp mode in Figure 9-
4.
If you want the Smart Object to originate at the same size as its original image, just
choose the original image and copy its contents to the clipboard. Then open the
target image and paste (Cmd/Ctrl-V). Open the Layers palette, right-click on the
pasted layer to show the in-context menu, and choose Group Into New Smart
Object. Now, press Cmd/Ctrl-T to Transform the object and scale it to the size in
which it will be used most often in the new image. The next two sections will show
you how this image became a part of a completed montage.
9.3.2. Making a Montage with a Warped Smart Object
In Figure 9-5 I put together several versions of the image on the left, resulting in
the kaleidoscope on the right.
Figure 9-5. On the right, a kaleidoscopic montage made from four Smart Objects,
all derived from the photo at left.
This is how you make a kaleidoscope montage:
1. Open the original of the image or images that you want to use as Smart
Objects. This can be a Camera Raw image that you've opened in Photoshop,
as long as it wasn't saved as a Photoshop file since the collage will reference
the RAW image. Your collage will remember the Camera Raw settings that
were used in the Smart Object.

2. Open the background image for your montage and paste in the clipboard
image.
3. Go to the Layers palette and right click on the new layer. From the resulting
in-context menu, choose Group into New Smart layer.
4. While the new layer is still selected, press Cmd/Ctrl-T to go into Free
Transform. Scale the image to the size you want it to be by pressing Shift
and dragging a corner handle.
5. Once the image is the right size, and while it's still in Transform mode, click
the Warp mode icon. You'll now see a grid around the layer's image with 12
control handles. If you drag on any of these, a curve control handle will
appear. In this instance, I dragged the handles into the positions you see in
Figure 9-6. You can drag the curve control handle to stretch the image in the
direction you drag it. Also, if you drag inside any of the nine grid sections
you can warp that portion of the image uniformly. In this example, I dragged
the handles into the positions I wanted. When you like what you've done,
press Return/Enter or click the Commit icon in the Options bar.
Figure 9-6. Drag the handles to your desired shape.
6. Copy this layer three more times. Use Free Transform to rotate each layer 90
degrees and then drag the result so that the foot of the branches is in the dead
center of the image.
7. To create a background the normal wayby knocking it outwould force you to
rasterize each layer. Rasterization would then disqualify it as a Smart Object.
So, to work around that place each layer in a Blend Mode that causes the
background to be revealed. In this example, Multiply works quite well.
9.3.3. Knockout Knockouts
One thing you must almost always do when adding objects to a background photo
is to seamlessly remove the object from its background. Making believable
knockouts is mostly a matter of knowing which selection tools to use and which
technique to use for a given subject type. Table 9-1 gives you the basic guidelines
to follow.

NOTE
If the knockout is a combination of the above subject types, you will need to use
software such as the Photoshop Extract filter, Ultimatte Advantage, onOne Mask
Pro 3, or Fluid Mask from Vertustech.com
Table 9-1. Extraction Tool Guidelines
Subject type Command or technique
Complex edges, e.g., flying
hair, feathers, transparency
Extract filter or third-party knockout tool, such as
Ultimatte AdvantEdge or onOne Mask Pro 3
Soft edges, transitional edges Extract filter
Manufactured objects, fruit Pen or Magnetic Pen tool
Large areas of solid color, such
as skies and walls
Select Select Color
Wiggly edges Magnetic Lasso


9.3.3.1. Manual knockouts and transitional edges
If the edges are smooth and geometric, you want your selection edges to be equally
smooth and geometric. To select these edges, especially for a knockout, you should
use the Pen tool as much as possible. You're probably already aware that the Pen
tool draws geometric shapes called vector curves. These originated in drawing
programs. Not only do they draw perfectly smooth edges, but these forms can be
edited quickly and with a great deal of precision. They can also be stored with the
file and in far less memory than the bitmapped edges formed with any of the
selection tools, such as the Lasso. Figure 9-7 shows a selection drawn around a
manufactured object and the resultant knockouts.
Figure 9-7. The selection on the left was made with the Pen tool. Note that this
path can be easily and precisely reshaped by dragging either the control points or

the curve handles. At right is the resultant knockout and montage.
Here are the steps taken to make this selection:
1. Choose the Freeform Pen tool from the Pen tools menu. In its Options bar,
check the Magnetic box. Click the inverted arrow just to the right of the
shape icons and choose the Freeform Pen options shown in Figure 9-8. Also,
make sure the Add mode is checked.
Figure 9-8. The fit resolution options for the Magnetic Pen tool.
2. Drag carefully along the edge of the shape you want to select. Absolute
precision isn't necessary at this point and speed is essential. On the other
hand, don't be blatantly sloppy. Be sure to close the path.
3. Zoom in to 100 percent and then use the Hand tool to follow the path.
Choose the Select Path (white) arrow just above the Pen tool and click on
the path so that you can see the control points. Use the white Direct
Selection tool to select and drag a point you want to move. When you do, its
control handles will appear, protruding on either side of its anchor points.
Drag the anchor points to align the path with the edge you are selecting.
Then use the control points to shape the curve (see Figure 9-9).
Figure 9-9. A close up of the curve path showing anchor points and control
handles.
4. You may need to edit some of the points. If you have too many points, you
can remove the extras by choosing the Subtract Point Pen (it has a minus
sign next to its icon) and clicking on the unwanted point. If you want to
make a corner point from a curve point, choose the Convert Point tool and
click the point. If you use the Convert Point tool to click and drag on a point,
a new Control Handle will appear in the direction you are dragging.
5. Make sure the Paths palette is open and save the path (from the Paths palette
menu, choose Save Path). When the dialog opens, enter a name for this path.
6. Convert the path to a selection and feather it slightly so that you'll have an
edge that blends with the image you are going to composite it into. If it's a
hard-edged object like the one in Figure 9-9, keep the feathering to a small

number of pixels. Depending on the overall size of the item, 15 pixels should
do.
7. Invert the selection (Cmd/Ctrl-Shift-I) and press Delete/Backspace. The
image outside the selection is now transparent. Save your image. When you
want to place it into an image, open your knockout image at the same time.
Press Cmd/Ctrl-A to select all, then Cmd/Ctrl-C to copy it. Activate the
target image's window and press Cmd/Ctrl-V to paste it into place. See the
section "Matching a Knockout to Its Background" later in this chapter for
instructions on sizing, lighting, and shadow casting.
NOTE
Sometimes you'll have an object that is transparent or semi-transparent inside its
boundaries. You'll have the most control over the blending and shape of this
transparency if you add a blank mask to your knockout layer after the knockout has
been placed into the target image. Use the Magic Wand to select the transparent
area in the layer and click the Mask icon. Your shape will be masked. Now select
the mask (a frame appears around the mask in the Layers palette) and use the
Brush tool to paint white inside the mask as appropriate. You will get as much
transparency as the opacity of the white paint you use allows.