If you’re out there doing composites, you probably have photo references that you are using. Whether it’s a catalog you purchased, a bootleg Xeroxed copy somebody gave you (that’s a no-no by the way!), or simply a collection of images you gathered together in a file box, most artists use some type of visual reference system.  [...]

Ok, I guess I should let you in on what we’re going to create. We’re going to make pages that hold 16 photos each, four across and four down. If you don’t think you can gather 16 photos for each category, then you can do nine per page (3 across, 3 down). Either way, we’re  [...]

Now we’re going to start scanning some photos. Photos that you know are OK to use, by the way. If you’re scanning faces, you’ll want them to be at least one and a half inches high to be useful for your book (think: passport photo size). If you’re scanning photos of hats, jewelry, or other objects, use your own best judgment  [...]

So, you’ve taken pictures of all your friends, scanned everything in all the photo albums you have, done some horse-trading with other forensic artists, and still you need more photos. Here’s the good news: you can get more online…Here’s the bad news: You may not be able to use them. One reason might be low resolution.  [...]

Now that you’ve got some images, the time has come to sort them into categories. You can either use Adobe Bridge for this, or use the thumbnail view. I like Bridge better because I can change the size of the images much larger if I want to get a closer look at something. Above, I  [...]

We’re almost done! Now we’re going to crop these photos so they will fit nicely on a page. In Photoshop, select the crop tool, and set the size to 2 by 2.5 inches…but leave the resolution field blank (trust me on this, I’ll explain why in a separate post).  You’ll have to open up and  [...]