Photoshop Organizing Arranging Reference Photos.

[benway]

Photoshop Organizing Arranging Reference Photos.

Hi. I’m very very new to photoshop.
I am using CS4.
I have a couple of questions, I’m sorry if they have been answered elsewhere, but I had a bit of a dig and couldn’t find them.

The questions are so simple and stupid that they are probably a bit retarded. In fact, you may even think I am retarded for asking them, which would be a shame for me because it means you have found out my secret, and now I am very embarrassed about that….

Okay, basically, I have just downloaded a bunch of photos that I want to print off as reference for drawing / painting.
I want to organize all of these photos onto one page/layer in photoshop to print them off.
This will save a lot of paper and space, since otherwise I will be printing off one image to a page! Waste of paper and space!
I have half-figured out how to do this, but there is a catch…
I can open all the photos as separate layers, then on each layer, I press “Select All” and then “Copy” and then Paste each individual image onto the main layer which I am going to print [which I have at an A4 size].
UNFORTUNATELY, when I paste these images on the main layer which I am going to print, photoshop re-sizes the images MUCH smaller and at a MUCH lower resolution.
[which really hides all the great halftones and things, and just makes the images hard to see!!]

I have tried re-sizing the pasted images to make them as large as they are originally, with “Free Transform” which is “ctrl+t”,
But unfortunately, because the pasted images are now at lower resolution on the main layer, when I enlarge these pasted images, they are totally pixellated !

I have been messing with this for hours now.
Unfortunately I have not been able to figure this [probably simple] thing out or find any tutorials, even though it seems like it should be something VERY simple [and I would think Photoshop should paste the image on a new layer at the SAME original resolution by default, which is very irritating. >:{
Thanks very much in advance for any help !!

[rodrigo!]

Start a new document piece to be A4 in physical size. Then you need to make it a DPI that is a resolution similar to the photos you paste. Check the pixel size of your photos and that of your blank document before pasting. You might want to adjust the photos so they are a similar pixel size so you can adjust them accordingly.
Now when you paste photos you know theyll be going on A4 size, and you just need to get the resolution to be decent.
If you're getting pix off the net, they are usually 75 dpi, you can just resize them to 300 dpi first and paste them onto the blank document (if its 300 dpi). then try printing them.
I find it easier to think of space in terms of pixels, Ie. a 500 by 500 pixel image will fit halfway on something that is 1000 by 500 pixels....

[benway]

The amazing Rodrigo Luff ! An honour ! :yayca: (;
I have heard many mythical tales about you, apparently you never sleep, you have six fingers to a hand, and live in a shack in a valley secluded from the rest of humanity where you create your amazing works and never leave the vicinity without a loaded gun.

Hmmm....I had a bit of a noodle with it...mixed success and failure....

I assume when setting the DPI you mean when you open a new photoshop doco, it allows you to pick the resolution, and it says "Pixels per inch"
I think the default is 100. So first I tried it at 1000. When I pasted the pictures onto it, they seemed even smaller. So I tried it at 300 as you suggested, but it seemed the same....When I resized them, they still came up pixellated.
I know they are not that smaller res because the original images are much larger and clearer [they are off the web, btw, but I guess the prob would be the same for pictures taken by myself]
so then I tried at 50, which was a lot "Better" since the image was huge which means I could downsize it, EXCEPT that it was so big that only a quarter of the image was on the base layer, and when I resized it to make it smaller, it was only that quarter which was resized : The rest of the image had been cut out ! So I had a really nice resolution of my choice on a quarter of an image, which is a quarter of the result I want.

PS how do I check the original DPI of an image?
And how would I handle it if the image's DPI were all different ?

Hope it doesn't seem like I'm being too pedantic with reference, but the reason why is I want to be able to fit like 10 or 20 photos / images to a page,
Since I am designing a Japanesque tattoo for a friend, and I want to pack in a lot of detailed / historical details, and if I was just to print the references off one by one, or 2 to a page, that would be a shitload of paper ! Especially if I want to do more images like this.

Thanks again !
And anybody else with any tips on this , please heeelp a spaz !!
And any pointers on where to find general good / best beginners photoshop tutorials is much appreciated.

[benway]

For instance, take this rather large picture of your friend and mine, the smiling happy buddha.

When I put it open it in PS, it is big, but when I copy and paste it to the main layer at 300 pixels / inch, it is drastically smaller.

And when I try to enlarge it on the base layer, it comes up pixellated, even though the original image is clearly high resolution.

[ColbyZ]

I use adobe bridge to make contact sheets. put all your images in one folder, open the folder in adobe bridge, set your doc. size to the size you want to print, set the dpi ( i normally use 96 or 150) set up your rows and columns (this controls how many images will be on a page) select all your images and save as a pdf. Adobe bridge automatically will create the correct amount of pages depending on the number of images you have selected. Adobe bridge comes with Photoshop.

[Kiareri]

If you make the pictures into smart objects, you will not get the pixellation.

[benway]

Awesome !! Thanks so much ColbyZ and Kiareri !! I appreciate your help very much. :yayca:
I would have had no idea to use either of these things. I will try them soon as I can.
Also, for mac users, I have been reading things that sound pretty good about the iPhoto application that comes with iLife, it sounds similar to the Bridge contact sheet thing, but it sounds like there are multiple ways to organize ref with it, and it sounds like a good and interesting program in general....So I'm going to get that too.
Damn, can't try this stuff now....weather is HOT and I don't want my mac to overheat ): It gets so hot......

[benway]

I am very impressed with iPhoto. I am using the 2008 version which I borrowed from a friend. Think I will invest in the latest version 2011, or the 2009 version which seems to have better reviews.

Adobe Bridge: I printed a contact sheet of 4. The only decent print option / photo arrangement I could find printed 4 photos straight down the centre of the page. The photos came out small and VERY black, all the greys were lost.
Was not too impressed with that, but maybe I am not using it correctly, and there are other better ways to use it ? Anyone who can recommend tutorials would be good, I should learn it.

iPhoto printed 4 photos on a page, all to a nice scale, with all the greys intact and nice.
Satisfied with that for the present.

I will have to learn to use adobe "Smart Objects" that Kiareri mentions. I will post about that later. ( :
ThanksThanksThanks again.