Work in the graphics editor Adobe Photoshop has many nuances. It all depends on what result the user needs to achieve. Some goals take a lot longer than usual. Color correction of photographs takes from 20 minutes to an hour, and you can spend even more than one hour on full professional processing. But if you suddenly needed to figure out how to make a collage in Photoshop, don’t worry. This problem is solved quite quickly.
Collage creation, getting started
Of course, before you start creating your own gluing, you need to select those pictures that you will use in your work. The whole process of how to make a collage of photos in Photoshop is easy to remember the first time. The main thing is attentiveness.
First, select all the photos you have selected and right-click on them. Select "open with Adobe Photoshop." The list of "Photoshop" will definitely be if you installed it on your computer.
After the pictures open in the program, you will see many tabs on the top panel. These are our pictures.
Organization of work with photos
Select any one picture from the tabs on the top panel. In the menu with layers there should be one single canvas called "layer 0". Click on it with the right mouse button. You need the "convert to smart object" item.
The image is framed. To make it the size you need and be able to move it throughout the space, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + T.
By dragging the corners of the image with the cursor, reduce / enlarge your photo and move it the way you like. When changing its size, you should use the "keep aspect ratio" button (paper clip). This button is located on the top panel, between the numbers. It will help to avoid distortion of the illustration. After click on the checkmark (done).
As you can see, the picture is located on a checkered field. It should be so. It is our workplace, where we will determine the rest of the photos.
Adding remaining pictures
To make a collage of several photos in Photoshop, you just need to paste the images you need into the checkered space that you just created.
To do this, select another tab among the documents opened in Photoshop (panel on top). Select the "rectangular area" tool and select the desired fragment in the photo. If you need to copy it all, select the whole picture (Ctrl + A).
After that press Ctrl + C (copy). Return to the check box with the check box. Use the combination Ctrl + V (paste). You can watch how the fragment we copied appears on the screen.
According to the same principle as you did with the first photo, transform and move the inserted image in various ways using the command Ctrl + T. After you decide on the location of the picture, click on the checkmark (done).
As you may have guessed, this procedure must be done with each picture. There can be as many as you want. Remember that the more there are, the worse each will become visible.
All photos will be displayed in the layer panel. And each will have its own separate layer.
Frame creation
So you figured out how to make a collage of several photos in Photoshop. But if you suddenly need to supplement it, you can use the frame.
To create it, you need to use the layer settings. In the canvas panel, select any image (layer) to which you want to add a frame. Click on it with the right mouse button. Next, select the line "overlay options".
A panel appears with a list of items. Select a stroke. Use the sliders to customize the frame to your liking. All changes will be displayed on your photo.
This procedure must be applied to all documents in the collage. That's all you need to know about how to make a collage of photos in Photoshop.
Alternative method
This style of making photo glues may not be to everyone's taste. Fortunately, this is just one way to make a collage in Photoshop.
For example, you can still blur the sharp ends of each fragment of the poster. The end result will look different. To make such a gluing, you must do the following:
- Stop at the step where you created the checkered field. Later, you placed all the other fragments of the collage on it. At the time of creation, only one photograph was present on it.
- Separately, copy (Ctrl + C) and paste (Ctrl + V) each photo you need into the checkered field. They will be inserted in a chaotic manner - this is normal.
- Place all the illustrations where you need (using Ctrl + T).
- Below the layers panel is the “add layer mask” button (a white rectangle with a circle inside). Apply this command for each picture (layer).
- A white box appears next to each layer. It should be so.
- Next, you need to take the brush tool. It is located on the left side of the screen. Set the tool size convenient for you. The color will need black. The opacity and pressure of the brush should be 50 (change the sliders that are on the top panel).
- In the layers panel, select any of the white mask squares. With a brush, begin to paint along the borders of the image to which the canvas of your choice belongs. You will see how the sharp edges of the picture begin to blur.
- Continue to blur the borders of the image with smooth movements. You need to crank this procedure with each layer.
That's all! Your collage is ready. It remains only to save the result of the work done. To do this, select "file", then "save as ...". Set the JPEG format and decide on the folder where you want to store the document. After, select the desired size and click "ok."
Interesting Facts
It is important that working with a layer mask for a collage requires a little more time than the method using a frame.
Remember to rotate images, apply different effects to them, or add text to them. So gluing will look interesting and colorful.
A paper clip (the "save aspect ratio" button) should be used when resizing any image. When the increase / decrease is made in any form - the details in the photo are modified beyond recognition. It should not be like that.
Still, the methods of how to make a collage in Photoshop are not the only ones. There are many programs on the Internet that are able to cope with this task many times faster. But, working in Photoshop, you discover much more opportunities for processing images.