How to Create a Photo Collage

collage cindy and eric

As I see my evolution unfold before me as a photographer– I am starting to think BEYOND single-images that get lots of likes on social media. Instead, I am very interested in this notion of creating image-collages — a visual tapestry of images.

1. WordPress and ’tiled gallery’

A simple solution is to use wordpress.com, and use the ’tiled gallery’ feature. This is what I use to automatically have my images collage into a nice little format as seen below:

Little Saigon, 2018
London, 2018
Lisbon, 2018. Shot with RICOH GR II in Positive JPEg mode, with further contrast added in Lightroom
Red abstract. Tokyo, 2017
Green abstract. Tokyo, 2017
Blue tarp abstract. Tokyo, 2017
Red, yellow, blue abstract. Tokyo, 2017

I currently am hosting my website on 1and1.com, and using wordpress.org with the WordPress ‘Jetpack’ plugin — which also allows me to use the ’tiled gallery’ function.

2. Which photos should I include in my collage?

Honestly– do whatever you want! For myself, I like to select images which put a smile on my face.

Simple ways you can also categorize your photo-collages:

  1. Location: For example, all photos from a certain city like all photos from Mexico City or Saigon. Or you can expand it to include all photos from a country (like my ONLY IN AMERICA project).
  2. Mood: Select photos which evoke a similar mood (usually I categorize this based on the camera I shoot with, with or without flash, and the color tones).
  3. Thematic concept: For my SUITS project — I included photos of men in suits, all looking and feeling miserable. My thematic notion was simple: Create a photo project which tells the viewer, ‘Money doesn’t buy you happiness– we must discover happiness somewhere else.’

3. Consistency and variety

I think when you are making a photo-collage, we want to keep things visually interesting for yourself and for your viewer. A simple strategy is this:

Include images which look visually similar, yet look visually dissimilar.

For example what you can do:

  1. Include photos all shot with the same camera (but of different subject-matter).
  2. Have photos of all the similar composition, but with all different cameras.
  3. Photograph the same subject-matter (all men in suits), but in different scenarios/situations.
  4. Shoot all the same aesthetic (all monochrome high contrast photos), but with different things you photograph.

More posts