Polaroid Collage: Tutorial
Sterling Weaver
Photographic Needs
• Landscape Photo (preferably of a face(s))
• Photoshop
Resources
http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/polaroids/
http://www.photoguides.net/creating-a-polaroid-in-photoshop
http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/tutorials/photoshop/vintage-effects-photos/#8
os/#8
Final Product
Internet examples
My Start Photo
Steps
Hue/Saturation
Photo Filter
4. Then go to the bottom of your layer palette: you see seven buttons
5. Go to the preset gradients and press the orange and purple one
6. Change the Opacity to 80% and the Fill to 30%
Your photo should now look old
Go to this button and find Gradient Map
Merge all of the Layers and save the image
7. Take the background image and duplicate it (Command+J)
8. With the background layer selected add a new layer...
What it should look like
9. With layer 2 selected paint this layer black (Option+Delete)
10. Create another blank layer (layer 3)
11. Take the Rectangular Marquee Tool and make a square selection on the picture
12. Fill this selection with black (option+delete)
13. With Layer 1 selected create a clipping mask (Option+Command+G)
14. With layer 2 selected create a new layer
15. Take Rectangular Marquee Tool again and select the frame for the polaroid
16. Fill the selection with white (Command+Delete)
17. Next add a drop shadow: To add our drop shadow, with "Layer 4" selected, click on the Layer Styles icon at the bottom of the Layers palette; Select Drop Shadow from the list of layer styles
18.Set the shadow Angle to about 120° and then lower the Opacity value at the top all the way down to about 30% so the shadow isn't too intense: Click ok
19. With Layers 3 and 4 selected bring up the Free Transform handles around my polaroid using the keyboard shortcut Command+T (Mac)
20. To rotate it, all you need to do is drag my mouse cursor anywhere outside of the Free Transform handles. The mouse cursor will change to a "rotate" cursor with curved arrows on either end of it. As you drag the mouse, the polaroid will rotate:
21.Group all three layers which make up the polaroid , which are the top three layers in the Layers palette: layers 1, 3, and 4:Use the short cut Command+G to group them or drag them down to the grouping icon
22. Click on the group and drag it down onto the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette
23. You should see a new group called “Group 1 copy” pop up
24. Open the layer in that group and select layers 3 and 4 again
25. Take the Free Transform Tool again and move the polaroid to another spot; this should reveal other parts of your picture
26. You can then rotate the photo and make it how you want
27. Once you are finished with that polaroid close the group and bring the top group the the new layer icon again...
28. You should see a new Group called Group 1 copy 2 pop up
29. Continue adding Polaroids the same way...You can add as many as you want
Tips and Tricks
• Layer the Polaroids so it looks more like a collage
• Don’t make you Polaroids too big or too small!
• Close the groups when you are done with them so your Layers Guide doesn’t get too cluttered
• Always angle you Polaroids
• If you don’t want to make you polaroids look old or you want to add another effect then don’t do steps 1-6
• If you want a white background and black frames… In step 12 fill the selection with white instead of black (Command+Delete) and in step 16 fill the selection with black instead of white (Option+Delete) make sure your colors look like this
*too Big
Final Product
In the end I finished with 16 groups 16 Polaroids
*I probably should have made my Polaroids a little bit bigger