I am new to photoshop...I am trying to photomerge a family photo.

Question

I took say 6 photos of family members at different times.  I am trying to put everyone in one picture is this possible?  I tried doing one and i ended up having my brother overlap me..lol  I have Photoshop elements 8.  I just need to make a family photo no one is in a specific spot to align right.  I can usually figure stuff out by messing with it I can not!!  Please put it in Lehman terms I am new to this.  I hope someone can help???  If it helps I have Windows 7??

Answer 1

As I understand it, you have 6 photos taken at different times, several people represented in each, and you wish to have a composite. The lighting and resolution of these 6 photos will not be uniform, it is safe to say, making for difficulty with a good outcome. However, there is a technique utilized by the scrapbooking folks. I copied this down, but do not have the source identified unfortunately. In effect one creates a customized template which is populated.
Open a new, blank file (File>new>blank file) and set width & height in the inch size of your paper stock, resolution 300px/in, background white (can be any color)
Access the rectangular marquee tool, and in the the tool's option bar select "Fixed size", and put in 2in x 3in, for example. You will have to calculate how many of these rectangles you will be able to place, as there is only so much "real estate".
Turn on the grid and snap to grid via View>grid & snap to grid. You can configure the grid via Edit>preferences>Guides and grids if you want to.
Duplicate the background layer, and create the first box by clicking with the rectangular marquee tool. Position the box, then fill it with 50% gray (Edit>fill selection, and under contents select 50% gray.) Select>deselect gets rid of the marching ants
Repeat for each new box. You should now have a document containing several rectangular boxes filled with 50% gray.
Select the first box that you wish to fill (with part of a picture)  with the magic wand tool. On the tool's option bar be sure that contiguous is checked. You should see "marching ants" around the selection, indicating that it is active.
Open picture 1, go to Select>all, Edit>copy, then go to your layout as completed in step #5, and Edit>paste into selection
Your image will be larger that the rectangular box, but you can drag it around to position the person that you wish to display. CTRL+T will allow you to resize the image with the corner handles, and to maneuver it
Repeat (for different folks from any of the pictures) for each rectangle so as to include the person(s) who will be so honored.
This is a complex tutorial, but you can do it. Print it out. Let us know how you make out.