Photo Montage Assignment

A Montage is simply a single final image composed of more than one source image.

Untitled montage: Linder

The source images are usually thematically related to form a meaningful whole. For instance, you might make a montage about an environmental issue, or about the life of your favourite author.

Music-themed montage for an album cover – Chris Duffecy

Your assignment here is to create a photo montage that represents a person and some of the important elements of their life.

The person could be you, a family member, or someone you know well.

Looking at the montage, the viewer should get a sense of:

· What the person looks like – a few different angles and/or moods

· What’s important to the person – are they obsessed with money? Do they fix cars? Dream of being a dancer or a stockbroker? Are they a brilliant student, a joker, a boarder, a devoted grandparent? Do they love horses or pets? Whatever defines them, try to depict that visually in the montage.

Montage Powerpoint (only viewable in Internet Explorer, not Mozilla Firefox)

Some Rules and Specifications

• All layers must be your own photography, shot for this project (not, for example, a collage of friends downloaded from Facebook; not old pictures of your subject, not images grabbed from the Net)
• Save all original photos used as jpegs in your AWT3/Montage folder, along with a PSD and JPEG named your_name_montage e.g. fred_flinstone_montage.psd, fred_flinstone_montage.jpg. I would expect between 8 and 20 images to be used, so there should be that many jpegs.
• Include at least two photos of parts of your subject, one of their face and the other a different facial angle or another aspect of them. For instance, if they’re a musician, you might include their hands. If it’s you, you set it up, and a classmate shoots it. Show only parts of them, as in the Linder example. .
• The final montage should be about 1500 pixels wide, and as tall as you think is appropriate. Use the File, New command to create a blank RGB file.
• Use PShop skills to subtly blend the parts together. Play with layer transparency. Select, copy and paste carefully. Change the order of layers by dragging them above and below each other. Use a large soft-edged eraser to remove unwanted parts of a layer. Add drop shadows or use the Burn tool to simulate shadows.
• Some elements could be text or symbols. You still can photograph or scan these.

One Paragraph Writeup

Create the Word file Montage.doc, saved in your AWT3/Montage folder. In it state:

· Your name

· Who your subject is (name and relationship e.g. Minnie Mouse, my haircutter)

· How each element contributes to the meaning of the montage (e.g. scissors: used to cut her clients’ hair; blood: to symbolize the danger of her profession)

· Any things you want me to particularly notice. For instance, a very difficult cut-out; a tricky camera angle, etc.)

Evaluation

· Originality

· Quality of photography

· Quality of blending in PShop

· Quality of final product

· Meaning – does your montage convey the depth of your subject?

· Writeup – does it describe the work as required?

Are You Done? Checklist:

· All photography your own, well shot

· All photo files saved in AWT3/Montage folder

· Final montage saved as .psd AND .jpg in AWT3/Montage folder; correct filenames your_name_montage.psd and your_name_montage.jpg

· Montage.doc saved.