Collage Of Warped Photos In Photoshop

Step 5: Add A White Stroke To The Image

Click on "Layer 0" in the Layers palette to select the layer that contains the original image. Let's add a white photo border around the edge of the image. To do that, go up to the Edit menu at the top of the screen and choose Stroke. This brings up the Stroke dialog box. I'm going to enter a value of 20 px (pixels) for my Width, which works well with my image here. You may need to enter a different value depending on the size of the image you're using. I'm using a low resolution image for this tutorial, so if you're using a high resolution image, you'll need to try a higher width value. The goal here is to simply add what looks like a standard white photo border around the image, which means we also need to select white as our stroke color, so click on the color swatch to the right of the word Color, which brings up Photoshop's Color Picker and choose white.

Finally, set the Location option in the middle of the dialog box to Inside so the stroke appears inside the edge of the image:

Click OK to exit out of the dialog box and apply the white stroke:

Step 6: Warp The Image With Photoshop's Warp Tool

Here's where we get to the fun part. We're going to bend, twist and curl the image using Photoshop's Warp Tool. There's a couple of different ways to access the Warp Tool. One is to go up to the Edit menu at the top of the screen, choose Transform, and then choose Warp, but here's a faster way. Press Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) to bring up Photoshop's Free Transform box and handles around the image, then simply click on the Warp icon in the Options Bar at the top of the screen:

You can click on that icon again at any time to switch back and forth between Free Transform and the Warp Tool.

With the Warp Tool selected, you'll see a 3x3 grid appear over your image:

If you've never used the Warp Tool before, it may seem a little confusing at first, but the easiest thing to do is simply play around with it and see what it does, since nothing you do will actually be applied to the image as long as the Warp Tool remains active. In no time at all, you'll see just how easy and fun the tool really is. To warp the image from any of the corners, simply click on any of the square corner handles and drag it around with your mouse. Here I'm dragging the top left corner outward:

To create a page curl, which is where the Warp Tool really shines, drag any of the corner handles inward. If you drag the corner in far enough, you'll actually see what looks like the back of the photo appearing in the corner (it's actually a mirror image of the photo, but it still looks pretty cool):

You can also warp the image by dragging the round handles that extend out from the corners:

And yet another way to warp the image is by simply clicking anywhere inside of the image and dragging your mouse around to warp it from that spot:

As you can see, Photoshop's Warp Tool gives us lots of control and flexibility over how we bend and reshape the image, and for this collage effect we're creating, there's no right or wrong way to go about it. We're not trying to create any sort of realistic effect here, although we could if we wanted. All we're really going for is something that looks fun, so feel free to play around with your image, warping, stretching, bending, twisting, and curling it anyway you like. The only thing you should try to avoid is warping anyone's face, since they may not be too happy when they see what you've done, so try to limit your warp effects to the corners and edges of the photo as much as possible.

Unfortunately, there's no "undo" with the Warp Tool, so if you're not happy with what you've done and want to try again, you'll need to press your Esc key to cancel your changes and exit out of the Warp Tool, then go back and start over.

Here's what my image looks like, with the Warp Tool still active, after I've reshaped the image in a way that works for me (yours may look completely different):

When you're ready to accept your changes, press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) to have Photoshop apply them to the image.