Collage Of Warped Photos In Photoshop

Step 21: Open The Image To Use As Your Collage Background

The work on our first photo is done and we've organized the three layers that make up the image into a layer group.

All we need to do now is drag the layer group over to our main collage document, so go ahead and open the image you want to use as your background.

Here's the image I'll be using:

Photoshop Tutorial: Open the image you want to use as the background for your collage.

Step 22: Drag The Layer Group Into The Main Collage Image

With both images open in their own separate document windows on your screen, click anywhere inside the document containing the photo we just finished working on so that its document window is selected. Then, simply click on the layer group in the Layers palette and drag the group into your background image document:

You'll see your photo appear in front of your background image in the new document, and if you look in the new document's Layers palette, you'll see that the layer group has been copied over to the new document and is now sitting above the Background layer:

Step 23: Resize And Reposition The Photo With Free Transform

Now that our first photo is in front of the background inside the document we'll be using for our collage, we can move and resize it as needed. To do that, press Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) to once again bring up the Free Transform box and handles around this image. To move the photo with Free Transform, simply click anywhere inside the photo (except for on the small target icon in the center) and drag the image into position with your mouse. To resize the image, hold down Shift and drag any of the corner handles. Holding down Shift as you drag constrains the the width and height proportions of the image, maintaining its original shape. To resize the image from its center, hold down Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) as you drag (you can hold Shift as well to constrain the proportions and resize from the center at the same time). You can also rotate the image if you want by moving your mouse cursor just outside the Free Transform box and then clicking and dragging your mouse.

Here, I've moved my photo into the center of the document and I'm resizing it by dragging the bottom corner handle inward:

Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) to accept your changes when you're done.

Step 24: Repeat The Same Steps To Add Additional Photos Into The Collage

And with that, our first photo has successfully been warped into shape and added into our collage! To add more photos (it wouldn't be much of a collage if we didn't add more photos), simply repeat the steps we've just worked through for each additional photo, warping each one differently for variety. When you get to the part where you add the layers into a layer group, name your new groups with successive numbers ("Photo 2", "Photo 3", "Photo 4", etc.), then simply drag them into the main collage document, move them into place and resize them as needed with Free Transform.

I've added two more photos to my collage, and if I look in my Layers palette, I can see that I now have three layer groups, named "Photo 1", "Photo 2" and "Photo 3", above my Background layer which contains my background image:

If you want to move one photo on top of another in your collage, simply click on its layer group in the Layers palette and drag it above the other photo's group to change the "stacking order". Layers and layer groups that are higher in the Layers palette appear in front of layers and groups below them.

Here, after adding my two additional photos, is my final result: