Creating a collage with PE2?

[Rich10]

I would like to learn how to create a collage of photos using Photoshop Elements 2. I have looked in several books on PE2 and cannot find anything about it. I don't want to simply put four or so photos together in one image. I would like to have a photo background (reduced opacity) and perhaps feather the edges of each addtional photo on top of the background photo, so each additional photo appears vignetted against the background. Could you please recommend a source or tutorial on the web to learn how to do this type of thing.
Thanks.
Richard Hirschman

[DannyRaphael]

Rich:

I believe collage crafting is a two-skill deal:
* The artistic talent to visualize the results beforehand (or as you move forward)
* Utilizing the appropriate Elements tools/techniques to achieve the vision

Most of the following covers the latter.

I did a quick google search on collage tutorials (for both Photoshop and Elements) and what I found was pretty lame. Hopefully here's some useful info:

I have an older book (written for PS4, but about 92% applicable to Elements) that covers a number of methods: Photoshop Collage Techniques, by Gregory Cosmo Haun. ISBN: 1-56830-349-1.

It covers numerous basic Photoshop techniques (again, mostly applicable to Elements) that are used in creating collages... things like: Masking, selection, blending, feathering edges, blend modes, layers, opacities, etc. I'm pretty sure this book is out of print, but it shows up periodically at half.com, on eBay and is probably available through other used book sites.

Collage with Photoshop (ISBN: 1-56496-210-5) is another older book. It's rich on some fabulous example images (finished product), but short on a great deal of how-to detail. Despite the title, it dabbles in other applications besides Photoshop. If you can get it cheap, it's not a bad source for visual inspiration.

A very, very good site for learning basic Elements skills is:
http://www.arraich.com/elements/psE_intro.htm

This site also has gobs of Photoshop tutorials, many of which apply to Elements as well.

Finally, a tool that I believe is essential to one interested in making collages is Layer Masks. LMs aren't available with native Elements, but the functionality can be enabled if you know how. Check out Richard Lynch's site (and book), Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements, where he provides a means for doing LMs in Elements. www.hiddenelements.com/

Hope this helps...
~Danny~

[bloex2003]

I typed merge into the search box, in PE2, and the search results pallette has a tutorial for creating a collage. I wonder if you could create the collage and use it as a layer over the background picture as you were describing in your post. Possibly using Blur or Smudge on the edges to blend it in. Just a thought and hoping you post any results you come up with.

[Rich10]

Thanks Danny and Greg for your helpful responses.
Richard