October 11, 2016

How to create a Four Panel collage in Photoshop

In today’s tutorial, I am going to take you through the process of creating a four-panel photo collage in Adobe Photoshop.

Our photo collage will be consist of four rounded rectangle shape.

We will use the rounded rectangle tool to create the panels, the Grid to assist us in laying out rectangle shapes precisely, Free Transform to resize/reposition images and shapes and Clipping Mask that comes with Photoshop

Let's get started!
Four Panel Photoshop Collage (Free Template)
Final result.

Download This Template

Download Four Panel Photoshop Collage template here or find others free Photoshop Collage Templates here.


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1. Create a new Document
Choose File> New (or Ctrl+N).

In the pop-up window, type a name in the Name field and enter the following information:

Width 1800 pixels, Height 1272 pixels, Resolution 72 Pixels/Inch, Color Mode RGB color, and Background contents White.

Click OK.

2. Create a Grid
Now we need to create a grid to assist us in laying out rectangle shapes precisely.

See this tutorial on how to make a grid or guides.

To add a grid, choose View>Show>Grid or else just press Ctrl+'.
show the grid.
Show the grid.

3. Adjust the Grid
Open up the grid preferences, choose Edit> Preferences> Guides, Grid & Slices.

Choose the color you want for the grid lines.

I will set the “Gridline every” option to be 5 percent and “Subdivisions” option to be 1.

Choose View>Snap to enabling snaping that will help you to align any object (including shape) you want.
Adjust the grid.
Adjust the grid.

4. Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool
Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool from the Tools panel, or else just press U.

You can create a simple Photoshop collage using the Grid.

Press Shift+U to cycle through the six available shape tools until the one you want is active.

In the Options Bar, make sure Shape is chosen from the menu then choose shape color.

To choose the color of the shape, click the color swatch in the options bar, and then choose a color available.

You can also choose a color from the Color Picker.

Lastly, enter a value you like for the stroke size.
the Rounded Rectangle tool. Press Shift+U to cycle through the six available shape tools until the one you want is active.
The Rounded Rectangle tool. Press Shift+U to cycle through the six available shape tools until the one you want is active. 


Click the color swatch in the options bar, and then choose a color available.
Click the color swatch in the options bar, and then choose a color available.


You can also choose a color from the Color Picker.
You can also choose a color from the Color Picker.

Option for rounded rectangle toolbar.
Option for rounded rectangle toolbar.

5. Draw a Rounded Rectangle Shape
To draw a Rounded rectangle shape, click inside your document and drag away from the starting point.

When you release your mouse button, Photoshop completes the rounded rectangle shape and fills it with your chosen color.

Now duplicate the rounded rectangle shape by going to Layer> Duplicate Layer, or else by pressing Ctrl+J.

Then reposition your duplicate rounded rectangle shape layer using Edit> Free Transform Path.

Move the rectangle shape by clicking and hold anywhere inside the shape and drag. Duplicate it as many as you want and then arranged it all to your satisfaction.

You can create wedding photo collage design here.
Draw a rounded rectangle shape.
Draw a rounded rectangle shape.

Draw another shape. Photoshop will create a layer for each shape.
Draw another shape. Photoshop will create a layer for each shape.

6. Adjust Each Shape Position Using Free Transform
Reposition each shape in the document using Edit> Free Transform Path.

Move the rectangle shape by clicking and hold anywhere inside the shape and drag.

Press Enter key when you are done.

After you finish repositioning all shapes, you can hide the grid by choosing View> Show> Grid.
Move its position using Free Transform.
Move its position using Free Transform.

7. Insert Image
Stock images used in this Photoshop Collage tutorial: baseball-player-850616, baseball-field-1149153, sports-1435728, baseball-1478386.

On the Layers Panel, Select the Rounded Rectangle layer to which you want to insert a picture.

Go to File> Place to open the picture you'd like to insert.

The Place dialog box appears.

Navigate to the folder that contains your image file then select the name of the file you want to open.

If your file does not appear, try to view all files by selecting All Formats from the Files of type list.

Click the Place button.

You can now edit the picture as follows:
  • Resize the picture by dragging any corner while holding down the Shift key to keep the picture does not distort.
  • Move the picture by clicking and hold anywhere inside the image and drag.
  • Rotate the picture by moving your cursor farther out from any corner until you see two arrows. Click and hold, then drag the picture.
  • Press Enter key when you are done.
Insert picture.
Insert picture.

8. Create a Clipping Mask
When layers are put into a clipping mask, the content of the bottommost layer (the Rounded Rectangle layer), clips the layers above it (the image layer).

On the Layers panel, make sure the layers to be clipped are listed consecutively.

Remember, you must stack the image layer above the Rounded Rectangle layer.

Click the image layer to be clipped, then choose Layer>Create Clipping Mask (or Alt+Ctrl+G).
Stack the image layer above the Rounded Rectangle layer.
Stack the image layer above the Rounded Rectangle layer.


Clipping Mask.
Clipping Mask.

9. Insert Other Picture
Repeat steps 7 through 8 to open and manipulate each picture you'd like to insert.
Insert all the photos.
Insert all the photos.

10. Fill Background With Color
We will fill the entire Background layer with a color. Select Background in the Layers panel.

Choose Edit>Fill (or Shift+F5).

In this dialog box, under Contents, you can select a color.

The Color Picker dialog box appears allowing you to choose a color.

Choose a color you like then click OK.

Now, the color that you choose fills the layer.
Fill the Background layer with color.
Fill the Background layer with color.


Now, the color that you choose fills the layer.
Now, the color that you choose fills the layer.

11. Save Your Document
Choose File>Save or else just press Ctrl+S to save your project file.

The Save As dialog box appears.

Navigate to the folder where you want to store your project file.

Type a name in the File Name text box and leave the default Photoshop (*.PSD;*.PDD) format.

Click Save to store the project file.

Once you have finished, you will probably also want to use File>Save As (Shift+Ctrl+S) to export the image in a more widely used format, such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, etc.

Here is the result:
Four-panel Photoshop photo collage.
Four-panel Photoshop photo collage.

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