Montage/Collage Tutorial

As with so many things in Photoshop, there is more than one way to skin this particular cat, and the method I’m going to explain will take into account proper alignment and sizing so that all of the elements fit together correctly.

For this tutorial we will assume that you plan to make a montage from 6 photographs, but this method can be used for any number of images.

A Note On Neatness and Layout

Before we get stuck in it’s worth pointing out that uniform gaps between images when creating a montage will help to create an over all professional feel.

I’ve also decided that I want the outer border to be twice the width of the gaps between the images (all will become clear). To do this we are going to set up a grid.

Setting Up In Photoshop

First, open a new document with a size of 32cm x 21cm and a resolution of 240 pixels per inch by clicking FILE>NEW and make sure to set the background to white.

We are going to apply a grid to Photoshop so that we can ‘snap’ our photos there and ensure well aligned photos (grids will not show up when documents are printed or saved).

· To do this first enable the grid by making sure there is a tick next to VIEW>EXTRAS

· Then to see the grid go to VIEW>SHOW>GRID

· And finally to allow ‘snapping’ to the grid (which means that when you’re dragging items around they jump and stick to the gridlines and intersections) by putting a tick next to View>Snap To>Grid

Dividing the montage

Make sure that your foreground colour is set to black by pressing D on your keyboard.

Using the rectangular marquee tool (selected by pressing M on your keyboard) draw a rectangle where you want your first picture to go. We are going to stay 2 squares from the edge and keep 1 square between each photo

Hold ALT and press BACKSPACE to remove the interior of your selection

Note that by drawing another rectangle over part of your black rectangle and clicking BACKSPACE without holding ALT will fill the black back in with white

Time For Some Photos!

Go to the folder containing the photos you want to upload and open the first one you want in your montage

With the rectangular marquee tool select the area you want to import into your montage trying to keep it something like the proportion of the square you intend on placing it in and press CTRL+C

Go to the WINDOW tab and at the bottom click your montage document (probably called untitled-1 or similar)

Press CTRL+V to paste the selection (as a new layer) into your montage document (it will most likely be very over sized DON’T worry! We address that next

Pressing CTRL+T allows you to Free Transform the new selection, if you go the top left most edge and move your mouse around until it turns into a double ended diagonal arrow, hold SHIFT and drag the image down to the bottom right, it will shrink and maintain it’s proportions.

You may need to do this in a few stages I recommend making the image ‘manageable’ first, then click and hold somewhere within the image to move it to roughly where it will end up and do some more resizing if necessary then press ENTER to apply the resizing IMPORTANT: IT IS NOT NECESSARY THAT THE SIZE IS SPOT ON AS LONG AS IT IS AT LEAST AS SMALL AS THE BLACK AREA IT IS TO BE PLACE WITHIN

Now for some photoshop magic! Press CTRL+ALT+G and watch as your photo magically sinks below your white borders!!

Again, don’t worry if your photo spills onto a different section because it will be covered over by the next photo. You can also move the layers up and down the layers list to change the stacking order of the photos if necessary but I recommend leaving this until all of your photos are in

Repeat this process with the rest of your photos to fill up your montage

Why Stop There?

If you want you can now treat the whole image as one and carry out your usual adjustments. For example click Hue/Saturation in the create new adjustments pop up box on the bottom of the layers palette and tick the colorize box, and slide the Hue to 25 and the Saturation to 25

If you want your borders to be black simply click on the background layer in the layers palette and click ALT+BACKSPACE