DTG defines photo mosaics as photographic images or pictures made up of many, usually hundreds, of smaller photographic images. Viewed very closely, the small tile images can be recognized as individual photos, but at a distance, the composite of these images make up an entirely different image.

This exciting branch of art has been going on for quite some time now and has gained a wide interest from all over the world. The meaning of these artworks has a profound effect on anyone who sees it. It can be a powerful medium of expression that conveys strong emotions. I myself was very moved upon seeing a photo mosaic of US president George Bush made up of all the servicemen that have died in Iraq. Just imagine the many soldiers making up that picture and you'll see why it brought out a lot of emotions for all who've seen it.

This type of art is a very effective tool to convey different types of meaning whatever the artist likes. It allows you to make the viewer make connections and this connections will serve as the medium where you communicate to them whatever it is that you want them to know.

Creating photo mosaics has been made easy by new software that has been developed for this particular art. You just need to look for one that suits you and then learn what the best steps to make excellent pieces are.

William Hunt, considered as a photo mosaic guru presents these simple principles that are essential to creating good photo mosaics:

(1) The large image MUST look good without too much jaggedness or color distortion. To achieve this use more and smaller tiles, use duplicates, modify the tile images or add another photo collection.

(2) The small tile images should be sufficiently large to view comfortably in the renderings final form. If this is a display on a computer monitor or a 8x10 print, you will need to use as few tiles as possible and still satisfy rule(1). If it is a poster size printout you can get by with over a thousand tiles.

(3) If duplicate use of the small tiles is needed, they must not be placed near to each other.

(4) If the small tile images need to be modified to achieve 1-3, it should be as little as possible.

(5) The target image and the small tile pictures should as much as possible have some coherent theme or connection.