big collage with many photos - how to manage size vs print resolution?

Question

I am making a big collage to be printed high res at poster size. Here are the complications:

I want to combine 20-40 small, high res photos.
I want a manageable file size as I work in PS to develop the collage.
Each photo will need filtering and effects that can't be decided until I see the photos next to each other.
Meanwhile I need to preserve high res individual images so that I can ultimately print the collage on an ink jet or commercial printer.

I will greatly appreaciate any tips, links, or suggestions on how to do this effectively (and what to avoid).

Neither of my guesses so far seem right:

1) slide 20-40 individual photo files around on my desktop, make the edits in each individual file, combine at last possible moment?

2) experiment in one collage file with heavily downsampled versions of each photo; re-do the collage with high res photos at end?

I'm running CC on a newish iMac with 8Gb memory and latest OS.

michelew83603738 · Answer

I would think you would bring in each image as a smart object, therefore you could size and re-size without losing resolution from its original. You could also go to that smart object and apply any filters and affects within it, or create smart objects of several images that might need the same filters and effects applied to them, that way everything isn't on that one layers panel, making it a little more managable and the working canvas can be sized as needed.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded