Guide to Inserting a Photo into Text with Photoshop

I've worked with Photoshop and its effects on a regular basis for over eight years, quickly becoming the "go-to" expert for friends and family with photo retouching, enhancement, or other graphics needs. Over the years I've used a great deal of different Photoshop effects for different purposes, and have found ways to make utilizing the effects easier and more enjoyable for both the average and the advanced Photoshop user. One of my most requested effects from friends and family is putting an image inside text. Although it looks like an incredibly difficult effect, it's actually exactly the opposite. All it takes is a picture and a word or phrase in which you want to place the image inside. Sounds complicated, right? I thought so too, before I did my first one. The secret is really just in where you put your text and photo layers, and using a simple modification to bring the effect all the way through.

(Disclaimer: I've had people ask me complex questions about getting into the professional photography business. While I have friends in the profession and know that Photoshop is a necessary tool for the modern photographer, I'm not in the business, so I can't answer related questions; I just have a knack for retouching the photos of friends and family and am familiar with the workings of the program.)

So where do we begin? Open the image you want to work on. Double click the background and name it something you'll remember. Crowd photos seem to work really well with this effect, I don't know why. Click on the "Type" tool from your toolbar.

Next, type in a word. Any word will do, but keep in mind the size of your photo. A four or five letter word is usually sufficient. Now your text will be in its own layer for the moment. Don't worry about the color of the text, it really doesn't matter. The font, however, is crucial: you must, must choose large, bold font for this effect to work. (Think about it: small, skinny font may seem elegant, but you won't get to see any of the picture inside it.) Some people prefer to use all capital letters in this instance; I'm not that thrilled with capital letters, but if you think your picture will be the better for it, be my guest.

As a side note, a long time ago it was suggested that sans-serif typeface is the easiest font type to read online, especially in large letters. (Long story short, sans-serif is the text you see without any "feet". Look up the phrase on Wikipedia for a better description of it.)

Okay, next, click-drag your layer text layer beneath your photo. This is probably the most important step of the process; if you forget it, nothing beyond this step will work. Press the Alt key and press your mouse button in between the layers. Look for the cursor to change into a circle, then click.

Now you go back to your layer of text. Using the "Arrow" tool, move and adjust it until you're satisfied with the amount and spacing of the photo inside the text. This is also the time to adjust the size of your font, as well as its height and width (via the "Transform" tool.)

You should see the effect immediately. If you want to have some more fun with it, try adding different effects to your text layer. Use whatever tools you like for a variety of different results-you may be surprised at what you come up with. (Some of my best work has come from such experimenting.) Once you're happy with how it looks, save the file.

As I promised, it's fun and painless. It's also quite a versatile effect, so look around and see how you can incorporate other fun effects into it.