Photo Challenge Day 1: Self Portrait

So I found a neato photography challenge on pinterest last month, and Darling Daughter has hit the ground running with it. I have been telling her for a week that I would join in. Only running a little behind but here it is...my self portrait.

Because I am Made Up of All Those I Love...

I truly do hate photos of me so this was a bit of a challenge, which totally explains why I have been dragging my feet getting started. Nevertheless, it hit me last night as I was mentally doing the Sunday-night-can't-sleep-checklist that I would like to make my self portrait out of all the pictures of me together...a multi-photo collage self-portrait. Once again, I googled and you-tubed my way to this creation. I imagine if I hadn't had to high jack low-res photos from my facebook, then this would have been clearer.

Step 1: In photoshop, open all of the photos you want to use.
Step 2: Create a new photoshop picture (I began with an 8 in x 8in 72 dpi transparent canvas)
Step 3: Within each photo that you opened in step 1, crop and reduce the size to 1 in x 1 in and 72 dpi...you can be uniform or freeform on whether you stick to 1x1.
Step 4: Once the desired size is reached in each photo, copy and close the photo without saving. Then paste your copy into Step 2's new empty photoshop document, lining the photos up in rows and columns.
Step 5: Merge all layers and crop out any open space once you have the collage the way you want it.
Step 6: Open the photo you want to overlay the collage onto to be the portrait. Copy and paste the main photo onto a new layer in the collage document and move that layer behind the collage layer.
Step 7: Select the collage layer, which should now be on top, and use the opacity toggle to allow the main photo to shine through. I chose about 20% opacity for mine.
Step 8: Once you have it the way you want, merge the layers and save.