'Shop It Up

Hey guys,

Here are some rather rudimentary directions on how to put all your images together in photoshop after you have scanned them. (To scan them, go to "File" then "Import").

1. The most important thing to remember in photoshop when putting images all together is that the DPI, or resolution, of all the images must be the same if you want their sizes to remain consistent. If you scanned all your images with the same scanner settings, then the DPI should already be the same. If you get something off the internet or from another source, then the DPI could be different. To check this, open the image in photoshop and go to "Image", "Image Size". The "resolution" is the DPI. In Photoshop, you can always make the DPI smaller, but making the DPI larger is risky. If you have unchecked the "resample image" box, then changing the resolution will change the size of the image (which is always fine). If that box is checked, then when you change the resolution, the size of the image will stay the same, and Photoshop will either make up data or erase it. If you have one image that is 300 DPI and another that is 72, when you put them together on the same canvas, the one that is 72 DPI will be much smaller. So, I would suggest scaling all your images to your lowest resolution one.

2. Once you have all your images opened in photoshop and their resolutions are the same, figure out how big you want the canvas to be that all the images will be collected on. Then, go to "File", "New" and create a new blank image that is the size you want it to be and the resolution of all your images. Then, go back to the window that your first image is in, and draw a selection box around the part you want to copy into your new image. You can draw a selection box by using the selection box tool (it is the second one down on the tool bar). Then go to "Edit", "Copy". If you get an error message like, "Cannot copy because selected area is blank", then go to "Layer", "Flatten Image". Then open your larger, now black canvas, and hit "Edit", "Paste". You can move the new image (or layer, in photoshop speak) around by selecting the arrow tool (the first one in the tool bar) and clicking on the image and moving it. When using the arrow tool, make sure at the top of the screen the "auto select" button is checked.

3. Repeat this step over and over until all your images are on the new canvas. If you are having issues with overlapping, you can either erase part of the offending image or you can send that layer to the back. To do this, look to the right of your screen and you will see a window that has listed all the layers (or images) that you have copied or created. The top one on the list is sitting on the top of all the ones below it. If you click a layer in this window and drag it down, it will then sit underneath the layers listed above it.

4. If you want to draw boxes around your frames, use the line drawing tool. You can change the width of the lines to fit your needs. You can also add text using the "T" tool.

5. If you have any problems, you can save your image as a photoshop document and email it to me, explaining what you would like to do. I can then try to do it and send it back to you. If you send me a jpeg, I will not be able to manipulate the "layer" information and it will make things more difficult.

Let me know if you have any problems.