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Montage/Collage Tutorial
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Nathan on 24 April, 2008 12:00:00
 
Introduction
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
Do this for all the photos you intend on inputting until you are happy with the
layout you have achieved and hide your grid again by clicking once more on
VIEW>SHOW>GRID (i forgot to remove the grid in the screenshot... oops!!)
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