Transcripts
1. Introduction & Class Overview: Hi. My name is Blair Barclay. I'm a graphic designer
and photographer, originally from Christ
ich, New Zealand, now living in
Copenhagen, Denmark. In this class, we'll be
exploring how to make vibrant, visually striking cottages
using Adobe Photoshop. Whether you're a beginner or have some experience
with design, you'll be able to follow along and discover how
to combine images, textures and
elements to create a cohesive, creative
digital collage. Digital collages are a
great way to explore your creativity by combining different elements into
something entirely unique. They allow you to blend
photos, textures, shapes and colors in a way
that can evoke emotions, create intrigue, or convey a message that words
alone can't express. Whether you're looking
to make personal art, enhance your design portfolio, or create stand out
visuals for social media. Digital collages offer
endless possibilities. It's also a fantastic way to
repurpose existing material, experiment with
juxtaposition and develop your visual style. In this class, I'll
guide you step by step through my process for
creating a digital collage. We'll start by exploring
which types of photos work best and where
to find them. From there, I'll show you
how to remove the photo from its background and set up
your document in Photoshop. Next, we'll bring
everything together, combining your photo with additional elements to build
an engaging composition. We'll then explore
how color can enhance your design and look at some helpful tools for
choosing the right palette. After that, we'll add texture to your collage to give it
a more handcrafted feel. And finally, I'll
show you how to save and export your
finished piece. By the end of the
course, you'll have your own digital
collage and you'll be ready to take your design
skills to the next level.
2. Sourcing and Preparing Photos: When creating a digital collage, try to choose photos
that are bold, simple, and easy to recognize. For this class, I'll be using photos from Unsplash and pixels. Two great sites where you can download high quality
images for free. When selecting your photos, look for ones with a
clear central subject that are easy to isolate
from the background. Here are a few examples of photos that work
well for collages. The subject stands out clearly. The lighting is good and
everything is in sharp focus. Now let's look at a few
examples that don't work well. Avoid photos that
are soft or blurry, where the outline of
the subject is hard to define or the
background is too busy. Whenever possible, choose images with a standalone subject, it will make the editing
process much easier later on. Once you've chosen your photo, it's time to prepare
it in Photoshop. We'll start by
isolating the part of the photo that we want
to use in our collage. To do this, we'll use the
select subject option. It's a great tool
that automatically identifies the main
object in your photo. Once the subject is selected, we'll apply a layer mask
to hide the background. The select subject
tool works best on high contrast photos where the subject clearly stands
out from the background. If the photo was busy or
there's not much contrast, the selection might
not be accurate. Don't worry if your
selection isn't perfect. We can refine it manually. With the layer mask selected,
grab the brush tool. Make sure the brush
hardness is set to 100% for a clean edge. Set your foregoing
color to white to reveal areas of the image
and black to hide them. You can also use a
polygonal Lasso tool for more control and precision. Just make a selection around the area that you
want to adjust. And with the mask
selected, press delete. Remember, when using
the Lasso tool, black adds and white removes the opposite
of the brush tool, so keep an eye on your colors. Once you're happy
with the results, right click on the layer mask and choose apply layer mask. Finally, export your image as a PNG that will preserve
the transparency. In the next video,
we'll start combining this photo with other elements
to build your collage.
3. Building Strong Collage Composition: Et's jump into Photoshop. Start by creating
a new document. I'm setting mind at 3,000
pixels wide by 2000 pixels high with a
resolution of 300 DPI. This makes it print quality in case you ever want to
produce a physical copy. For the color mode, choose RGB and set the background
color to white. To begin, I'll create a circle
as the central element. Select the Ellipse tool, then click and drag
to draw a circle. Remember to hold
down shift while dragging to keep the
proportions perfectly round. Next, let's bring in the cutout photo we prepared earlier. Open it in another window and simply click and drag the
image into your main document. Once it's placed, use the move tool to
position it where you want and resize it by clicking and dragging
on the corner handles. Now let's use the circle
as a mask for the photo. There are two easy ways to do this to place the photo
inside the circle. In the layers panel, make sure the photo layer is directly
above the circle layer. Then hold Old on
Windows or option on a Mac and click between the two layers to
create a clipping mask. To partially mask the photo, position the photo
above the circle, then hold command on a Mac
or Control on Windows, and click on the
circle layer thumb now to create a selection of it. With the photo layer selected, click the mask icon at the
bottom of the layer panel. If you want to reveal or
hide more of the photo, select the mask and
use a brush tool, paint with white to reveal
areas and black to hide them. And that's it. Now you
have a simple composition with your photo in circular
shape ready to build on. Now that we have our
main elements in place, it's time to start refining the composition and adding
a few more details. You can bring in other photos, shapes or a combination of both to help strengthen
the overall design. Composition plays
a powerful role in how a collage communicates. It not only enhances
the visual harmony, but helps guide
the viewer's eye, emphasizes focal points and reinforces the mood or
message you want to express. Here are four effective
ways to build and balance your composition.
Along the axes. Aligning elements along a clear vertical
or horizontal axes helps create a sense of
harmony and balance. This approach adds
structure and stability, making your design feel
grounded and cohesive. Asymmetrical arrangement. Using a more irregular
or off balance layout introduces movement and energy. Asymmetry creates visual
tension and rhythm, leading the viewers
gaze naturally through the composition.
Playing with scale. Varying the size of
your elements can instantly add depth and
storytelling to your collage. Larger objects appear
closer and more dominant, while smaller ones
feel further away, creating a layered effect. Scale can also add a sense
of playfulness or surprise, keeping your design engaging. Repetition and minimalism. Repeating shapes or forms even subtly can create
unity and rhythm. While a minimal approach ensures your design stays
clean and focused. Together, they can help balance visual interest with
breathing space. When refining your composition, think about how these
techniques can work together, balance and contrast,
order and surprise, to create something that feels both dynamic and intentional. For my collage, I'll be combining a few
of these approaches. First, I'm bringing in
two new photographs, a moon and a satellite. To make the moon
more interesting, I'll create a copping mask using a hexagonal shape Then I'll experiment with a scale of both these photos to add depth
and a sense of distance. Next, I'll add two squares
to subtly emphasize the vertical axes and another circle behind the
satellite to create contrast. Finally, I'll add a thin line to slightly unbalance
the composition, giving it a more dynamic
off centered feel. Up next, we'll move on
to color and explore how to use it to enhance the tone and mood
of your design.
4. Using Colour to Strengthen Your Collage: Color is a crucial
element in any design. It plays a powerful
role in setting the tone and conveying meaning. It helps evoke emotion, establish character, and define the overall mood of your design. For instance, warm
tones like reds, oranges and yellows can create a feeling of energy,
passion, or warmth. While caller tones
like blues and greens often convey calmness, serenity, or a
connection to nature. In a collage, your choice of color can guide
the viewer's eye, highlight focal points, and create harmony or contrast
between elements. Thoughtful use of color not only enhances the visual appeal, but also reinforces the message that you
want to communicate. When choosing a color palette, there are many amazing online
tools that can help us out. Adobe color is an
excellent online tool for creating and experimenting
with color palettes. It allows you to explore
color harmonies, such as complimentary
analogous or triadic schemes. You can even upload an image, and Adobe color will generate a color palette from
it automatically. This is a great way to extract cohesive colors from a
photograph or artwork. You can also use the
Explore tab and enter a keyword to find a
relevant color palette. Or use the tren tab to find a color palette that's
popular at the moment. Once you have found a color palette that
suits your design, you can just copy and paste the hex code by clicking here. And then paste it into the color selector, back in Photoshop. Another great online tool is a dictionary of
color combinations, a site that provides unique and unexpected
color combinations. It's perfect for
finding inspiration that goes beyond
the conventional. Whether you're looking
for modern muted tones or bold vintage
inspired palettes, this tool offers a wide range of ideas to spark
your creativity. Simply click on a color and then browse the different
color combinations. And again, you can copy the
color by simply clicking on the hex code and then pasting it into the color selector,
back in Photoshop. You can also take
inspiration from photographs or other designs. For instance, if you come across an image that captures the mood or tone you're aiming for, simply open and Photoshop, grab the eyedropper tool and
select the specific color. Nature photography, artwork, and even fashion can be an excellent source
for discovering dynamic color combinations. They feel organic and
visually appealing. Remember to test your
palette on your design to ensure all the colors work
well together in context. A palette might look
amazing on its own, but testing it against
the textures, shapes, and compositions
in your collage is key to ensuring it enhances
your work effectively. For my collage, I'm going to use this mid century modern colouring palette
from Adobe color. I chose this palette
because it strikes a nice balance between
modern and vintage, which fits the overall feel
of the collage perfectly. I'll start by using
this off white tone as my background color. It has a subtle warmth that resembles aged or faded paper, giving the design
a timeless look. I'll use the blue
as my main color, and the green gold and
black as accent colors. Next, I'm going to make the
photos black and white. With your photos selected, press Shift Option Command B to open the Black and
White adjustment panel. From here, you can fine tune the contrast
using the sliders. Converting the photos to black
and white helps simplify the composition by removing any distracting colors that might clash with your palette. To tie everything together, I'm also going to apply a
gradient map to the photos. For this, I'll replace
the black with a dark gray and the white with the same off
white background color. This creates a soft
cohesive effect that helps integrate the photos seamlessly into the
overall composition. Up next, we'll add texture to the collage to give it a
more handcrafted feel.
5. Adding Texture: To really make
your collage stand out, consider adding texture. Texture adds a handmade
fill to the design, making it look less
clean and digital. To add texture to the shape
layers, select the layer, go to the filters down to
distort, and then to ripple. Click Convert to Smart Object, then select the size and amount. To add grain to the photo, I'm going to select the photo, go up to filter, down to
noise, and add noise. With this, we can simulate the look of a grainy
black and white photo. Just add enough
to give the photo a little bit more character without losing too much detail. Here I have a paper texture from Unsplash that I'll use to add
some depth to the collage. First, I'll convert it
to black and white. Then I'll add adjustment levels and pull the black and white
points closer together. This helps the texture stand out and feel a bit
more pronounced. Next, I'll drag the texture into the main composition and place it at the top
of the layer stack. I'll set the blending mode to multiply and lower the
opacity to around 50%. Then adjust the scale so it
fits the overall design. Once you're done,
lock the layer. To add some more detail, I'll bring in this technical drawing. Just like before,
I'll convert it to black and white and apply
a levels adjustment. Then I'll drag it into
the main composition, place it above the circle layer, and set it as a clipping mask. I'll change the
bleeding motor screen and invert it by
pressing Command I. And finally, adjust
the scale and position until it feels balanced
within the composition. Now, I'll move on to
the final touches. First, I'll change
the blending mode of the cold squares and the
green circle to multiply. Then I'll drag the
top square below the blue circle and
they lay a stack. Next, I'll bring the green
circle above the satellite. Scal it up slightly. And reposition both elements so the green circle overlaps
the blue circle. After that, I'll release the clipping mask
on the main photo. I'll hold command and click on the blue circle to
load as selection. Then with the photo
layer active, I'll create a layer mask. And finally, move the photo slightly using the arrow keys, four taps up, and
one to the left. And that's it.
We're almost done. And the next class we'll be exporting our
finished design.
6. Saving and Exporting: Once you're happy
with your collage, it's time to save and export it. I like to save my design
as a Photoshop file, which will retain all the layers if you want to go back
and make changes later. I will then flatten the image
to make the file smaller. If you're planning to
print your design, make sure to export
it at 300 DPI. For web use, 72 DPI is fine. You can change the
image size by going to image, then image size. Just be aware that
you can reduce the size of your
image without issues, but increasing the size may ruin the quality of your image. Once you're done, go
file, then export. And there you have
it. You've created a digital collage
from start to finish. I encourage you to take
the skills you've learned here and try creating
your own unique collage. The possibilities are endless. Every project is an opportunity to explore your creativity. Please share your
final project in the project gallery and feel free to reach out if
you have any questions. Thanks for joining me today
and happy collaging. Oh
Blair Barclay
