Photo Effects: Turn A Photo Into A Collage Of Squares

Step 10: Duplicate Another Layer And Reduce The Size Of The Square To 50%

The main part of the effect is now complete, and for the record, I now have a total of 36 squares in the image. You may have more, you may have less. It really depends on the image you're using and how many squares you think it takes before the effect looks "right". I'm going to finish off the effect by adding some smaller squares in the corners and around the outside edges.

To do that, I'm going to duplicate another layer with Ctrl+J (Windows / Command+J (Mac), and then I'll click on the layer mask to select it, just as I've done 36 times already. This time though, rather than simply moving the mask to create another square, I'm going to press Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) to bring up Photoshop's Free Transform box and handles around the square, and then I'm going to drag one of the corner handles inward to reduce the size of the square by about 50%. As I drag the handle inward, I'm going to hold down Shift+Alt (Win) / Shift+Option (Mac), which is going to constrain the mask to a perfect square and tell Photoshop to resize the square from its center:

Once I've resized the square to about half its original size, I'll press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) to accept the transformation, and then just as I've done with the other squares, I'll use the Move tool to drag it to a new location, this time somewhere around the outside edge of the collage:

Step 11: Continue Adding More Smaller Squares Around The Outer Edges Of The Collage

Continue to duplicate the layer with the smaller square mask and moving the smaller squares to the outer edges of the collage. Again, add as many as you need to make the effect look "right" to you. Here's mine after adding several smaller squares around the edges. I've also added some here and there in the main part of the image to add a little variety:

Step 12: Merge All The Square Mask Layers Into One

After adding all of my smaller squares to the image, I now have a grand total of 56 squares, which means I have 56 layers that contain a square-shaped mask. I want to complete the effect by adding a drop shadow to the collage, but I can't do that very easily when the collage is made up of 56 separate layers. I need to merge them all onto one layer. To do that, in my Layers palette, I'm going to click on the top most layer to select it. Then I'm going to scroll all the way down and Shift-click on "Layer 1", which is the layer that started the whole collage. This will select all of the square mask layers at once (you'll see them all selected in the Layers palette).

With them all selected, press Ctrl+E (Win) / Command+E (Mac) to merge all of them onto a single layer above the white-filled layer. You'll now have only three layers in the Layers palette - the Background layer, the white-filled layer, and the merged layer:

Step 13: Add A Drop Shadow To Complete The Effect

With the merged layer selected, click once again on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette, and this time select Drop Shadow from the list:

This is going to bring Photoshop's Layer Style dialog box back up, this time set to the Drop Shadow options. The only option I'm going to change is the Opacity. I just want a subtle drop shadow, nothing that's going to take the attention away from the collage itself, so I'm going to lower the opacity value all the way down to 25%:

Click OK to exit out of the Layer Style dialog box, and we're done! Here's my final "Collage of Squares" effect:

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