Tutorial: Creating Photo Collages Using Lightroom

One of the questions I get asked most often when people see my printed photos or my Project Life pages is:  How do you make your collages?  The answer is I use Adobe Lightroom’s Print Module to create and print collages.  It is super-easy and magical after you’ve set up your templates!  And setting up the templates doesn’t take too long either.  It’s so easy and time-saving that I think it may be the best kept secret in scrapbooking!

I’ve created several videos below, showing you how to create different types of collages within Lightroom.  Please watch them in sequence because they build upon the previous ones.  Keep in mind that I’m just trying to give the information in a succinct way.  I didn’t do any voiceovers after the fact.  All the audio of me talking is recorded through the microphone as I was doing the video screencast tutorials.  So just be prepared for a few “ums” and “ahs”.  ;-)

The first video shows you how to set up your printer to print the right size and the right settings from Lightroom.  Please keep in mind that this set up is specific to my printer. (I have the Canon Pixma MG5320.  It is discontinued, but a very similar one is the MG6620.)  Your printer may be different, but the dialog boxes and choices hopefully will be very similar to mine.

Video:  Setting Up Your Printer To Print From Lightroom

You can see it in higher resolution at Youtube.

 

The second video shows you how to create a 4x6 collage with two photos.  It also shows you how to save your collage as a template so that you can use it over and over again with different photos!

Without an outside border.

With an outside border.

And in a square format.

Video:  Creating Photo Collages in Lightroom Part 1: 4x6 with 2 Photos

See it in higher resolution at YouTube.

 

The 3rd video shows you how to create 4x6 sheet of 4-photo and 6-photo collages. 

Video:  Creating Photo Collages in Lightroom Part 2: 4x6 with 4 Photos & 6 Photos

Watch it in high resolution at YouTube.

 

The 4th video shows you how to create a 8.5x11 collage with 12 square photos.  You can adapt it to create other collages for printing on the 8.5x11 sheet.

Video:  Creating Photo Collages in Lightroom Part 3:  8.5x11 with 12 Square Photos

Watch it in high resolution on YouTube.

If you’ve made it through all of the above, then I’ve got a free template for you to download!  This Lightroom template is for a sheet of 8.5x11 collage with 12 square photos, like above.

Download the Lightroom template here.

Save it to a folder of your choosing on your computer.  Not sure how to import the template and use it in Lightroom?  I’ve got a video tutorial for THAT!

Video:  How To Import and Use a Collage Print Template in Lightroom

Watch it in high resolution on YouTube.

And those are my tutorials on making collages in Lightroom!  Hope you learned something that makes scrapbooking and Project Life’ing faster and easier.  Let me know in the comments if you have questions.

Thanks for stopping by!  ♥

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Rad Lab On Sale!

I consider Get Totally Rad’s Rab Lab filters as one of the major game changers in my photo-processing process.  I bought it on sale at the end of 2012 and it has changed the way I work with photos for my blog and for scrapbooking.  I even talked about it the last time I was on The Digi Show podcast! I guess it’s one of my favorite “quick and dirty” tricks, ha ha!

They are having a 30% off summer sale right now!  Use code “TRSUMMER” to get 30% off my favorite photo editing program, Rad Lab.  It works from within BOTH Photoshop AND Lightroom!  I use it right from Lightroom when I’m looking at my photo catalog.  It is SO easy!  The sale ends on midnight on Monday June 23rd, so don’t delay and miss it! 

I can’t tell you how much Rad Lab has changed my photo-editing and workflow, and how easy it is to use it.  Oh wait, I can!  I created this video to show you my workflow from Lightroom. I also show you all the different filters available, and also how to save your own recipes!

Here’s my “before” photo from the video:

And here’s the after:

I love the ease of editing photos with Rad Lab, I think you will too! Rad Lab also works from within Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, if you don’t have Lightroom. There are so many options to stack the different filters to make your own favorite recipes!  And the live previews make it so easy to get the look that you are after.  You can take a look at the technical specifications here.

You can pick up Rad Lab for 30% off until midnight on Monday June 23rd!  Woohoo!

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Rad Lab Sale + Wintersong

Hi Everyone!  Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!  I took some time off to be with family, so I’m slightly behind on blogging.  We’ve had a wonderful few days off!

A couple of things I wanted to mention while the good deals are still on!  First is the Rad Lab sale!  If you read my blog, you know that I love the Rad Lab filters by Totally Rad.  I use it from within Lightroom to process my photos.  Rad Lab also works from within Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, if that’s what you have.  Totally Rad has extended their Black Friday sale through Cyber Monday 12/2!  This is their biggest sale of the year and you can save 35% off any of their products, although you know my favorite is Rad Lab!

Use the code BLACKFRIDAY2013 to get 35% off Rad Lab!  This is the best price you will see probably all year, so take advantage of it while you can!  I bought this last year during their Black Friday sale too!

I use Rad Lab filters from within Lightroom all the time for photos on my blog and scrapbooking photos. I even talked about it the last time I was on The Digi Show podcast! I guess it’s one of my favorite “quick and dirty” tricks, ha ha!  Wanna see an overview of how I use Rad Lab from Lightroom to process my photos?  Watch this video.

Here’s my “before” photo from the video:

And here’s the “after:

Speaking of Rad Lab, I made a digital layout last week in which my original photo sort of clashed with the color scheme of the digital scrapbook kit I was using, so I used Rad Lab to transform the photo. 

Here is the original photo:

While I love the colors, it was too tropical for a kit called Wintersong. 

So I used Rad Lab to make it look like this:

Doesn’t it give it a totally different feel?

The recipe of this photo:
Divine Light #2 at 100%
Troy at 51%
Lux | Hard at 41%
Flirt at 35%

Here’s my layout.  See how the colors of the photo goes much better with my layout now?

Supplies:  Wintersong digital scrapbook kit and Wintersong journal cards by One Little Bird; Amatic SC font.

Speaking of Wintersong, it is still on sale for 30% off through Cyber Monday, and you get the journal cards for FREE when you purchase the kit!

Wintersong digital kit here.

Wintersong journal cards here.

That’s it from me today!  I need to create an editorial calendar of all the blog posts I need to write to catch up!  Hope you have a great start to your week!  :)

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Tutorial | Emboss & Watercolor Resist

I blogged a tutorial at the Evalicious blog yesterday, showing a stamp emboss & watercolor resist layout.  I made a layout about our first time at AT&T Park in San Francisco.  

In the video, I show the step-by-step, how I stamped and embossed the white images onto my background paper.

And how I watercolored over the embossed images to create looks like these.  The watercolor only sticks to the paper and not the embossed images, that’s why it’s called “resist”.  :-)

Here’s my emboss & resist video.  It is under 7 minutes.  I hope you enjoy watching my process and learning about stamp emboss and watercolor resist!  :)  You can click over to youtube to see it slightly larger.

 

SUPPLIES USED:

InLinkz.com

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