I want to create the popular mosaics/montage photos. How do the
companies like www.photowow.com and www.procollage.com create them? 
What software do they use.  I've downloaded and tried just about every
mosaic/montage creating software out there such as Easy Mosaic, Foto
Mosaic, Centarsia, etc... they do
not produce the design that I am looking for.

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Clarification of Question by fesource-ga on 02 Aug 2004 08:32 PDT

That IS NOT THE ANSWERE I AM LOOKING FOR.  I am very familiar with
Adobe Photoshop and other software that creates this type of art.  My
question is specifically how these two companies do it.  My question
is how do these two companies do it?  Do they do it manually or do
they use software?  I am very confident they use software because both
products are so similar.

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Clarification of Question by fesource-ga on 02 Aug 2004 09:13 PDT

Each of these companies provide a Montage product where 2 photos are
used to create on large photo.  For example go to
http://www.procollage.com/other/index.html#montage or
http://www.photowow.com/new1/designs/21/after.jpg.

I could be wrong, but my guess is that they create them manually in
Adobe Photoshop or some similar professional image manipulation
software.  It's not terribly difficult for someone familiar with the
software.  And the prices they're charging seem to equate with the
amount of time it would take to create such a montage in Photoshop.

Joey-ga is correct. All those effects can be done in photoshop. Get
the "consumer" version, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2. It's around $70.00
new, and even cheaper on e-bay. Your local bookstore has shelves full
on how to teach yourself, it's pretty easy and fun. Look for ones that
show you how to create "Art". There are classes too at your local
college and plenty on-line.
Hope this helps.

Both of the web sites you list, "PHOTOWOW.COM" and "PROCOLLAGE.COM",
mention designers and custom work so I don't think you are looking at
an automated, software-only solution.

There are a number of programs you can use to manipulate photos, as
you know. The key is the skill of the designer in creating an
effective layout (in the case of a collage or montage). If the
designers are using Photoshop, they may have created a set of
repeatable Actions for each "look" to automate parts of the process
such as the Andy Warhol look. There are also Photoshop plugins to
assist with silhouetting, though CS now has a pretty effective Extract
filter.

As far as the specific creation of a montage from many tiny photos,
Arc Soft Photo ontage gets good reviews. The is art as well as skill
to all endeavors:

http://www.arcsoft.com

Reviews
http://www.focalfix.com/reviews/digital/photomontage.shtml
http://www.epinions.com/content_35972222596

Other montage software and resources

http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/~michaelt/juggle/otherResources.html
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photomosaics/

I appreciate the attempts to answer my question, but no one has, so
far.  As for the links provided, they all refer to the same
software... photomontage.  I already know about that one. Maybe I just
expected too much from Google Answer.  I expected my question to be
answered by someone actually researching these two companies, possible
contacting them or somehow learning how they do it.  I agree, it could
very well be some repeated action that was created in Photoshop to
streamline this effect over and over... THAT IS WHAT I WANT TO GET. 
The actual action or procedures used.  If this can not be provided,
then my question will be answered.