I’m currently using Jasc’s Paint Shop Pro V6.02 as my preferred package for post-scanning clean up and collage / montage creation – it also has the advantage of CAD-like Vectoring tools to draw with, such as making maps for stories or in the case of collages, making replacement hair for areas lacking it (a Clone tool will only work so far in that regard.) 😉
Adobe Photoshop – also an excellent package, one that many in the collage community swear by, that is, if you can afford the $$$ tag. For most, especially those on a budget, PSP is the way to go. 😎
As for source materials –
For backgrounds, in addition to using a camera with a flatbed scanner – or if you have a high end digital camera, so much the better. A while back I recommended in the Links section here on the Amaz0ns forum, the Webshots Community website, which has an on-site search engine.
http://www.webshots.com/
For subjects, typically, the way I work is when I come across a prospective subject with an appropriative Gammazon, GTS or SW pose I save an extra copy of it in a special folder on my computer, which helps to cut down searching through my Amazonian archive collection. It then is only a matter of matching the right background with the right model.
Two of the critical things you should keep in mind when matching diverse pair of pictures. One, do try to use the largest-sized background pictures that you can – since resizing the final product is important in order to help achieve a plausible illusion. And two, when possible try to use high resolution / quality pictures for your backgrounds as well as for your models. (Nothing worse then having the illusion spoiled by an obvious grainy looking mismatch of the subject with her background.)
For cutouts, I usually have my lasso tool set to Point to Point, Zero Feather and a checkmark in the Antialias box. With only a few rare exceptions, I find that that supplies enough to initially blend in the cutout – later I might re-lasso the cutout, contract the marquee one or two pixels and then apply a tiny fraction of a percent of a Gaussian Blur to finish the feathering-in process. (Saves time, especially on large cutouts by doing this instead of having to go around an edge manually by hand with the Soften tool).
Shadows – yes, there is a Drop Shadow effect with the program, and when you can use it it’s of enormous assistance. Unfortunately, most of the time I have to create my own by using a lassoed copy of the figure, raise the empty marquee to another layer, then fill in with a matching color that fits the preexisting shadows in the background. Takes some practice to learn how to manipulate it with the Deformation tools in order to stretch and warp it into an appropriate position that is in perspective with the rest of the setting.
In certain cases I’ve used the PSP Picture Tube feature – i.e. to insert Clouds, Fires, Gossamer Wings, Crystal Bell Jars, etc – it’s also what I use to mark my collages with my Banner of the Realm or the SDI symbol for my Amazon AIR Defense series. If you don’t want to make your own – nor do you need to do so – since there are thousands of sites where you can download supplementary Tubes for your PSP program. One of the best that I’ve found would be the Free Tubes site. Others can be located by using Google – set the search to Tubes and Paint Shop Pro.
http://tubes.ominix.com/
“I like a good story well told. That is the reason I am sometimes forced to tell them myself.”
~ Mark Twain / Samuel Clemens (1907)
