Quick & Easy Photo Collages

At The Handmade Exchange we often use photo collages to quickly and easily show a variety of items or simply show a product from different angles.

These photos are worth the effort for a number of reasons and with our tutorial you will discover that, really, not much effort is required!

Collages are perfect when listing items on Ebay or when posting on Facebook. Many people do not have the time or patience to flip through an entire gallery of creations, so why not show a variety of products or different angles with one picture?

Download Picasa. A free photo editing program from Google. This is a great program that allows you to easily organise and edit your photos. Download can be found here:
http://picasa.google.com/

Find and Select Photos. The menu on the left will automatically find and categorise all of the photos on your computer. Find the folder that contains the photos you would like to combine, hold down control, and select click on multiple images to select the pictures you want. You will see them listed in the “selection” box near the bottom left corner.

Create - Picture Collage. On the top menu of Picasa you will find an option labelled “create”. Click "create" and choose the third option titled is “picture collage”. This will automatically open a new tab in the program where you can edit your collage. On the settings toolbox menu located on the left side of your screen you will find the type of collages you can create. We often use "mosaic", which automatically fits the images onto the page. This is the easiest option but if you would like more control perhaps try some of the other options.

Edit Collage Options. On the settings toolbox you can adjust the grid spacing, which is the spacing or border around each image in the collage. You can also change the background colour and the page format or page layout. There is also a button below the collage (bottom-center of your screen) that allows you to "shuffle" the pictures. Experiment with the options, especially the page format, where you can change the layout between portrait and landscape.

Create and Save Collage. When you are happy with your layout, click the button below the settings labelled “create collage”. This will create the image and bring you to the main photo editing options where you can crop, straighten, change the contrast and even add text. Finally click "file" on the top menu and select "save". This will save the final collage as a .jpeg document, which is the standard format for a picture or image.

Follow this guide and you will be creating professional collages in no time - it's much easier than you might expect! And remember, a great photo will sell a product all on it's own.