Create a Mosaic Portrait from Photos

1 COLLECT YOUR IMAGES You need a lot of photos for this, including one to be the “master” photo, so if you’ve got a folder full of similarly themed images, all the better. A cute use for a mosaic portrait is to use lots of pictures of the subject, or something they’re interested in, to create the final result. We happen to have a folder full of pictures of birds of prey—150 in all—so have decided the model in our “master” portrait is an avid birdwatcher. To cut down on processing time, it’s a good idea to shrink the source photos beforehand, which is where our first Photoshop Action comes in. Open the “Actions” window (“Window > Actions”) and create a new one [ Image A]. Actions are recorded; you carry out the task you want to automate with the recorder active, and your steps become part of the Action. So, open an image from the source folder, use “Image > Image size” to shrink it to around 2,000 pixels across, and use “File > Save as” to make it into a level 5 JPEG in its own folder. Use the “Stop” button to stop the Action recorder, and if you didn’t earlier, give it a sensible name. 2 AUTOMATE Now you’ve got your action, you can put it to use. Set it running on a folder, and it churns through every image in it, saving you loads of time. Go to “File > Automate > Batch,” and choose your recently created Action from the drop-down. Choose the source and destination folders, and you can specify “Save As” options if you didn’t record them in the Action. Check “Override Action Open commands,” hit “OK,” sit back, and let Photoshop munch through the images. 3 CONTACT SHEET Once done, you’re left with the empty Photoshop interface, but open the folder you marked as the Action’s destination, and you’ll find it full of small JPEGs. Head back to “File > Automate,” but this time choose “Contact Sheet II.” Choose the resizing Action’s destination folder as your source folder, uncheck “Flatten All Layers,” and make the contact sheet’s dimensions about the same as the “master” photo you’ve taken—you may need to close the “Contact Sheet” window to check these. The most important thing is to keep the aspect ratio the same, as you can always alter the pixel dimensions later. If in doubt, err on the side of too big. Work out how many columns and rows you need to get every image on the same document, and put that data in, too. We’ve checked “Auto Spacing” and “Rotate for Best Fit”—the latter rotates landscape images so they’re portrait, creating a smoother effect. Uncheck “Use Filename for Caption.” When ready, hit “OK.” This takes a long time, and doesn’t tell you when it’s finished. 4 RESIZE ANY THAT NEED IT Because we didn’t check “Flatten All Layers,” every image thumbnail is on its own layer. Select the “Move” tool from the top of the toolbar, and check “Auto-Select Layer” and “Show Transform Controls” on the options bar. Then click every thumbnail that’s rotated the wrong way, and use the Transform controls, in conjunction with “Layer > Arrange > Send Backward,”

to resize or rotate it until it looks like the other thumbnails [ Image B]. If you’ve ended up with large gaps between rows, you can drag them closer together, too. 5 CROP TO A PATTERN Use the “Crop” tool to crop your contact sheet to the size of the mosaic, so there are no white borders. Next, we need to save the mosaic as a pattern. Head to “Edit > Define Pattern.” Give it a name—there’s one there by default—and hit “OK.” The dialog disappears and nothing happens, but that’s OK. 6 PATTERN FILL Open your “master” photo, the subject of your portrait. Mess around with things such as “Levels” and the “Spot Healing Brush,” then open the “Layers” palette, and create a new Pattern layer from the same button you’d use to create a new Adjustment layer (a circle with a dark and light half). Immediately, the new pattern you defined earlier appears over the top of your image, hiding it. Change the “Blend Mode” of this new layer to “Overlay,” and the subject blends through [ Image C]. 7 EDIT THE COLORS Making sure the Background layer is selected, choose “Shadows and Highlights” from “Image > Adjustments.” Check “Show More Options,” and use the “Amount” sliders in “Shadows” and “Highlights” to adjust the light and dark areas of the image, changing the way the pattern blends with the subject. Experiment with all the sliders. 8 CHANGE SIZE If you want to change the scale of the pattern, you can—it repeats to fill any gaps. Double-click the left-hand icon on the Pattern Fill layer, and you open the “Pattern Fill” window you saw earlier. Change the “Scale” to make your pattern larger or smaller [ Image D]. You can also drag to reposition the pattern, if there’s a part you want to fall over a specific area of the subject. 9 FLATTEN AND FINISH Once happy, save your creation as a PSD to preserve the layers, then use the “Layer” menu to “Flatten” it, and save it as a JPEG for sharing online.