joining images

[sheldonc]

I'm sure this is really easy but I have no idea how to do it

I basically just want to take 3 images and join them to make some sort of collage that I can then keep / post as 1 image

I'm using a Mac with Iphoto & I have Gimp

Thanks in advance for advice on how to do this

[wulf]

A panorama is an image with a very wide field of view. Typically this is produced by stitching several shots together and hiding the joins. In contrast, a triptych is three images put next to each other with obvious joins. It comes from the world of art where an image might be painted on three folding panels.

To create one of those in The Gimp, I start with one of the images and extend the canvas to make it large enough to fit the other two. Normally each image in a triptych is the same size although another approach is to have a wide central image and half-width ones on either side. I then create a couple of new transparent layers and paste the other two images in, moving them into position.

You can stop here or you can do further work to frame and divide the images.

Wulf

[OsmosisStudios]

Panorama:

Triptych:

The first is a combination of 39 shots stitched together using Photoshop CS4's "Photomerge" function. If printed at maximum (300dpi) quality, the print would be 18 FEET wide.
The second is 3 shots taken seperately and simply placed on a white background together.