Tutorial on How to Make a Chimeratic Composition

Assignment prompt:

Take at least three pictures (your own or someone else’s) mash them together into something that makes them more than the sum of their parts, something that would have been impossible in real life. Include the original images so we can see how they build on one another to make your final composition.

Even though I did not actually do this assignment worth 3.5 Stars during the course of the semester, when I saw it, I thought it would be something cool and fun to do!

I used Photoshop Elements 11 to create this assignment and tutorial but if you have Photoshop you should be able to following this same process. It is a pretty easy assignment and you will only need to use one tool throughout the project.

First find the photos you would like to use and compile together. I started with a plan landscape photo, and then picked four other photos that had objects I wanted to crop out and place onto the landscape backdrop. The following are the photos I used for the project:

Now that you have your photos compiled together, upload each of them into Photoshop Elements 11 in order to begin editing. Start with one of the photos you would like to crop the object out of and select the  Quick Selection Tool, which is highlighted in the toolbox below.

Once you have selected the object, right click your mouse and select Layer via Copy.

Next right click your mouse over the new layer and select Duplicate Layer.

Once you have selected Duplicate Layer, a box will appear. In the Destination subsection of the box, place the layer in the same window as the background photo. The name of the background photo in my project, was DSCN3240.

Proceed with these first few previous steps on each photo used until all objects you would like to use have their own layer with the background photo.

In order to adjust the sizes of the objects, right click on the object you would like to resize, and select Free Transform. Now you will be able to adjust the size to your desire and move it around anywhere on the photo.  Do this with each object until you have created your desired scene.

I wanted to make my objects really big because I thought it would look funny with the tall mountains in the background.

Final Product