Step 22: Add Two More Photos To The Frame

Follow the same steps to add two more photos to the frame document, one for the middle area and one for the right. First, open the photo you want to use. Press Ctrl+A (Win) / Command+A (Mac) to select it, then Ctrl+C (Win) / Command+C (Mac) to copy it to the clipboard. Close out of the photo's document window once you've copied the image to the clipboard. Switch back over to the frame document and click on either the placeholder middle or placeholder right layer in the Layers panel to select it (depending on which one you're adding the photo to).

Press Ctrl+V (Win) / Command+V (Mac) to paste the photo into the document. Photoshop will place the photo on its own layer directly above the placeholder layer you selected. Use the Move Tool to drag the photo over top of the placeholder shape if needed, then go up to the Layer menu at the top of the screen and choose Create Clipping Mask. Finally, press Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) to bring up the Free Transform box and handles around the image. Hold down your Shift key and drag the corner handles to resize the photo. Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) when you're done to exit out of Free Transform.

Here's my frame document after adding photos to the middle and right sections:

Step 23: Convert The Three Photos Into Smart Objects

For these remaining few steps, you'll need Photoshop CS2 or higher to follow along. We're going to see how easy it is to use our final result as a template, swapping other photos in and out of the frame as needed using Smart Objects which were first introduced in Photoshop CS2.

In the Layers panel, click on the layer than contains the first photo we added (the one directly above the "placeholder left" layer) to select it. It should be on a layer named "Layer 1":

With the layer selected, Right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) on the layer's name and select Convert to Smart Object from the menu that appears:

Nothing will seem to have happened in the document window, but if we look in the bottom right corner of the layer's preview thumbnail, we can see than a small Smart Object icon has appeared, letting us know that the photo is now a Smart Object:

Do the same thing for the remaining two images (which you'll find on "Layer 2" and "Layer 3"), first clicking on the layer in the Layers panel, then Right-clicking (Win) / Control-clicking (Mac) on the layer's name and choosing Convert to Smart Object from the menu. When you're done, all three photos should have the Smart Object icon appearing in the bottom right corner of their layer's preview thumbnail.

Step 24: Replace The Contents Of Each Smart Object To Add Different Photos

With all three photo layers now converted into Smart Objects, click again on "Layer 1" in the Layers panel to select the photo on the left, then Right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) once again on the Layers name to pop open the same menu we saw a moment ago. This time, choose Replace Contents from the menu:

This opens Photoshop's Place dialog box. Navigate to the folder on your hard drive that contains the photo you want to replace the first image with. I have three new photos saved in a folder on my desktop. Click on the name of the photo you want to use, then click on the Place button:

As soon as you click the Place button, Photoshop swaps the original photo with the new photo in the document! If you need to resize the new image, press Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) to bring up the Free Transform handles, then drag the corner handles to resize it just as we did with the original photo, holding down your Shift key as you drag to constrain the aspect ratio. Again, if you can't see the handles because the image is too large to fit inside the document window, press Ctrl+0 (Win) / Command+0 (Mac) to switch to the Fit on Screen view mode. Press it again when you're done resizing the image:

Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) when you're done to accept the transformation and exit out of Free Transform:

Do the same thing for the other two photos to swap them with other images. First select the photo's layer in the Layers panel ("Layer 2" or "Layer 3"), then Right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) on the layer's name and choose Replace Contents from the menu that appears. When the Place dialog box pops up, choose the new photo you want to use, then click on the Place button. If you need to resize the new image, press Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) and drag the Free Transform corner handles, holding down Shift as you drag. Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) when you're done to exit out of Free Transform.

Here is my result after replacing the middle and left photos with new images:

Make sure you save the document as a Photoshop .PSD file when you're done so you keep the layers and Smart Objects intact, ready for the next time you need to re-open the file and add new photos!

And there we have it!

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