Photo Montage Techniques: Photo Montage Advice

Creating a Photo Montage is a good way to remember a memory, or to remember a bunch of them. The first step is to find a bunch of pictures that you would like to assemble into a montage. They can be related, or just a bunch of random things that make you happy. Try it at home, or at work, or at school, or wherever you want.

The next step is choosing how you are going to assemble them. There is the traditional model, which you can hang up in your room or wherever you like, and there is the new-fashioned way of doing things: on the computer! If you choose the computer, you will need the appropriate software. I've linked some that I find easy and fulfilling to use, they're down at the bottom of this page.

Moving along, you should decide how you would like to place the pictures together. you can cut out important elements and arrange them in a cohesive way, or you can just use the entire photograph. If you choose to do the latter option, make sure you organize them in a nice way! You don't want grids and grids of photos, people will look at it and think it's a photo spreadsheet! "It's not a spreadsheet, it's a montage," you will reply, but they will not believe you.

Angles, angles angles! There's a reason why the word angle is so close to the word angel. It's because when you get them right, it can be heavenly! Drastic angles will turn you and your loved ones sideways, or upside down! Avoid doing that at all costs! Gentle slopes, but don't exceed 40 degrees, in my opinion. I used to place this number much lower, but with some experimenting, I've seen that it can work in certain situations.

Of course these are just general rules, and rules are made to be broken! You can try to make a radial montage, a wheel of sorts! Maybe upon a spinning axle? In this case, I think it's okay to have all different angles, since it's such a dynamic presentation.

Play around, see what you like, and see what you don't! Feel free to break all the rules you want, there's no photo montage police or anything. Just make sure that the photo montage rule doesn't have any overlap with federal or state law before you break it.