Film Strip Photo Collage in Photoshop - Part 1
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Written by Steve Patterson. In this two-part Photoshop photo effects tutorial, we'll learn how to create a fun photo collage using a simple film strip shape as a photo frame for multiple images. In this first part of the tutorial, we'll draw the actual film strip itself using Photoshop's shape tools, then we'll save it as a separate document so we can easily re-use it any time we want without having to draw it all over again. In the second part of the tutorial, we'll use several copies of the film strip to create our photo collage.
Here's the film strip shape we'll be drawing in this part of the tutorial. The gray area in the center is where we'll be adding our photos in part two of the tutorial:
Let's get started!
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Step 1: Create A New Photoshop Document
To begin, let's create a new Photoshop document by going up to the File menu at the top of the screen and choosing New, or press Ctrl+N (Win) / Command+N (Mac) to open a new document with the handy keyboard shortcut:
This brings up the New Document dialog box. Enter a value of 1000 pixels for the Width and 900 pixels for the Height, which should give us a good width-to-height aspect ratio for our film strip. Set your Resolution to 300 pixels/inch and make sure the Background Contents option is set to White:
When you're done, click OK in the top right corner of the dialog box to exit out of it. Your new document window will appear on your screen.
Step 2: Select The Rectangle Tool
To draw our film strip, we'll use Photoshop's shape tools, which allow us to draw vector-based shapes that can be easily resized as needed without any loss in quality. Since our film strip needs to be rectangular, select the Rectangle Tool from the Tools panel (not to be confused with the Rectangular Marquee Tool which is a selection tool, not a shape tool):
Step 3: Set Your Foreground Color To Black
When we draw a shape, Photoshop will initially set the color of the shape to our current Foreground color. We want the color of our film strip to be black, so before we draw the shape, let's set our Foreground color to black. Black is actually the default color for the Foreground, so yours may already be set to black. If not, press the letter D on your keyboard to quickly reset your Foreground and Background colors to their defaults. You'll find the Foreground and Background color swatches near the bottom of the Tools panel. The swatch in the upper left (the Foreground color) should now be showing black:
Step 4: Make Sure The "Shape" Option Is Selected
Photoshop gives us three different ways that we can use the various shape tools. We can use them to draw vector shapes (which is what we'll be doing here), we can draw paths, which are basically just outlines of shapes, or we can draw pixel-based shapes. We can select from these three options by clicking on the appropriate icon in the Options Bar at the top of the screen. Since we want to be able to resize our film strip as needed without any loss in image quality, we need to draw a vector shape, so click on the Shape layers icon in the Options Bar (the icon on the left):
Step 5: Drag Out A Large Rectangular Shape
With the Rectangle Tool selected, black as our Foreground color and the Shape layers option selected in the Options Bar, we're ready to begin drawing our film strip. Click near the top left corner of the document window and, while holding your mouse button down, drag towards the bottom right corner. You'll see an outline of your shape appearing as you drag:
Try to keep an equal amount of space around the edges of the shape as you drag. When you get near the bottom right corner, release your mouse button. Photoshop draws the rectangle shape and fills it with black:
If we look for a moment in our Layers panel, we can see that we now have a brand new shape layer named "Shape 1" sitting above the Background layer. Vector shapes always appear on their own layers so there's no need to add a new layer first before drawing a shape:
Step 6: Switch To The "Subtract From Shape Area" Mode
Now that we have our initial rectangle shape, we need to cut some holes out of it to make it look more like a film strip. First, we'll cut out a large rectangular hole in the center which will serve as the main photo area. If you look up in the Options Bar, you'll see a row of five icons, each showing a different layout of squares. The icon in the middle is the Subtract From Shape Area option. Click on it to select it:
Step 7: Draw Another Rectangular Shape In The Middle Of The Initial Shape
The "Subtract From Shape Area" option allows us to remove part of our existing shape. With the Rectangle Tool still selected, draw a second rectangular shape, this time in the center of the existing rectangle. Just as we did a moment ago, click once to set the top left corner of the rectangle, then keep your mouse button held down and drag towards the bottom right corner. You'll see an outline of the shape appearing as you drag. This is the area that will be cut out:
Release your mouse button when you're done. This time, rather than adding a new shape to the document, Photoshop cuts a hole in the initial rectangle, creating the main area where our photos will appear later:
Step 8: Select The Rounded Rectangle Tool
To draw the notches along the top and bottom of the film strip, we'll use the Rounded Rectangle Tool, which is similar to the Rectangle Tool except that, as its name implies, the corners are rounded rather than sharp. Normally, we select tools from the Tools panel, but whenever we have a shape tool selected, we can easily select any of Photoshop's other shape tools directly from the Options Bar. Click on the Rounded Rectangle Tool icon in the Options Bar to select it:
Step 9: Set The Radius Value To 10 px
We can control the roundness of the corners with the Radius value in the Options Bar. The higher the radius, the more rounded the corners will be. Set your Radius value to 10 px (pixels):
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Step 10: Draw A Rounded Rectangle Shape To Create The First Notch
Make sure the "Subtract From Shape Area" option is still selected in the Options Bar, then click and drag out a small rounded rectangle shape in the left of the black border area along the top of the film strip:
Release your mouse button when you're done. Photoshop uses the shape to knock out the first notch in the film strip:
Now that we have our first notch, we'll see how to quickly add the rest without having to actually draw any of them. We'll do that next!
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