How to Insert Photos into Your Photo Album Template Page in Photoshop CS4

If you read my previous article "How to Create a Photo Album Template in Photoshop CS4," you found out how easy it is to create your own photo album templates in Photoshop CS4 that you can send off to your favorite photo lab for printing and binding into a personal photo album. Now that you know how to create a photo album page template in Photoshop CS4, you need to know how to insert your photos into the proper frames on your photo album page.

After opening Photoshop CS4, open your photo album template page and the photos that you want to insert into the frames on the page. If you created 4 frames, you will need to open 4 photos (unless you want to use some of the photos more than once.)

Now that you have your template page open and the photos that you want to insert into the photo album page frames, you need to decide which frame you want to start with and click on that frame or click on the layer corresponding to that frame in the layers palate. Either way, the frame you choose will be selected, which will make placing the photo into the correct frame much easier. Next you need to decide which photo you wish to place into that frame, click on it with the "Move" tool selected, and drag it onto your photo album template page.

After you drag the photo to your photo album template page, you will notice that the photo is sitting on top of the frame that you wish to place it inside. To place the photo inside the frame, go to your layers palate, place your mouse cursor on the line between the two layers, hold down the "alt" key ("option" key in Mac) until you see your cursor change into two little circles, and left-click on the line. (You may need to move the mouse a tiny bit while holding down the "alt" or "option" key until you see the circles.)

Once you've done this, you will see your photo drop down into the frame. Now you can click on the photo itself (or it's layer on the layer's palate) to resize it and move it around within the frame to position it where you want it. Be careful that the photo fills the entire frame. If you move your photo to a position where the edge falls inside the boundary of the photo frame, you will see the photo edge and have a gray line at the edge of the frame.

All that is left to do now is to place the rest of your photos inside of the frames. Don't forget to click on the layer first that corresponds to the photo frame where you wish to place the photo. Even if you forget, you can still move the photo's layer in the layers palate. Just click on it, and drag the photo's layer so that it is on TOP of the photo frame layer where you wish to place it.

Another tip when resizing any of the photos - hold down the "shift" key so that the photo stays proportional. If you drag it left/right or up/down, this will stretch the photo so that the proportions change. Hold down the "shift" key and use the corner transformation buttons to resize the photo. If the photo still doesn't fit into the frame you want it in, you may have to resize the frame. Again, this is an easy fix. Just click on the frame's layer and use the transform buttons to size the frame so that the photo will fit.

After you have placed all of your photos into your album page, you will need to flatten the entire image (go to "Layer" "Flatten Image") and save it as a .jpg file so that the lab can print the photo album page as a photo. If you want to save your template to use again, just rename the new .jpg file with a different name as your original photo album page template, and you can start all over again.