Collages in Photoshop Elements

1- Open all your pictures into photo shop – FILE, OPEN, browse photos, highlight your pictures then press OPEN. Minimize all your pictures into the project bin at the bottom. You should be in FULL EDIT.

2- At the bottom of your tools list on the left is your color selection tool with two squares. The top one is the main one used for tools and the one behind is your background color. Click on the BACKGROUND COLOR SQUARE. Select the color you want for your background and click on it. The little background square will change to that color.

3- Click FILE/NEW/BLANK FILE and a background size box will come up. I sometimes change the pixel drop down box to inches and put in my width and height in inches. I chose 12 W BY 10 H for my background size but you can do any size. Keep your pixels at 300. Color mode should be RGB COLOR and with Background contents, choose BACKGROUND COLOR. Then hit OK. Your background should pop up in the background color you have chosen.

4- Drag and drop your pictures about where you might want them. Click on the top tool on the left which is the MOVE TOOL. A box will show up around each picture you have selected and you can move it and size it to your liking and hit the check mark at the bottom of each picture when you are done. You can also delete a picture off your project and it will still remain in your project bin below.

5- When you are finish with your collage, choose FILE/SAVE AS. Name your file in the already highlighted box. Choose your format. I always do JPEG. At the top choose which file you want your saved project to go into so you can find it later. Then SAVE your project. A JPEG option box will open up. You can choose the quality. I keep them on HIGH because I have a lot of space on my computer. BASELINE STANDARD should also be selected. Hit OK.

6- Now you can upload it to the website.