How To Create A Fluid Collage Carousel In Photoshop Your Instagram Feed

By now you have seen these carousels on a lot of photographer’s feeds. They are a beautiful way to highlight a session in a different way, melding both vertical and horizontal photos together. It allows you to bypass the way that Instagram crops photos. I love that it allows me to tell/ show the whole story. I honestly had the hardest time figuring out how to do this. So, now that I know I wanted to share it so, it might be easier for you! 

I use Photoshop to create my collages. This is what has worked for me, but I have heard of a few other ways so feel free to research those too. 

Here are the steps: 

First, create your document and set up your dimensions. The max height you can set for IG is 1350 px. The width of each frame is 1080 px. So, for every added frame you will add an extra 1080 to your width. If I am going to create one with 8 frames which is my general goto, the width would be 8640. The easiest one to do the math on is 10 frames, which =10800. 

Second, I go through and cull the photos that I want to add. I use Photomechanic to cull all my sessions and it has been an incredible tool for me! Check it out for yourself here, you can also do a free 30 day trial and if you are a student I believe you get a discount. I am not being paid to share. I just love them so much!

Third, pull your favorite photos and drop them into your Photoshop canvas. You can always start out with more than you actually need. If a photo doesn’t fit just delete as you go. Try to choose a variety of horizontal and vertical. I like to add some that are not very busy for backgrounds. Like plants or flowers. But really you can get so creative with your canvas. I have seen some people use a lot of white space and others completely cover it. Have fun and show your style. You can get really playful with this.

Fourth, once you have all your photos placed it's time to slice up your panorama into the individual images. Grab the slice tool. When you select this tool a little icon will pop up on the left corner of the big image. You currently have one slice. Left click on the icon and it will drop down click on edit slice option. This will open a screen to type in your width amount for each image/frame, which again should be 1080. 

Fifth, you are now ready to export your product. Go to file>export>Save for web (legacy). Then make sure you have Jpeg selected, the optimized box checked and quality at 100. Then select convert to sRGB, preview Monitor Color. The image size box I don’t believe affects your image size. It used to allow you to adjust this but since mine was updated it will not allow me to enter the dimensions and when I save the files It has not affected anything. I believe you can ignore this section. Hit save. Title your image, and set your destination and save. Photoshop will create a folder titled images in that destination and that is where you will find your photos. 

Sixth, transfer them to your phone if you like working on IG’s mobile platform. I just airdrop mine! 

Seventh, when you upload the photos from your camera roll don’t forget to select the size to fit button [ ] so that it captures the full slide. 

Eighth, wallah you are done. Now you can write your caption and add your #’s and tag your peeps.  

I hope that this was helpful to you.

Also, if you are more visual I recommend this youtube video that helped me learn. He does a few things a little differently than me, but it was so helpful. You can also watch my condensed version too :).

Lastly, if you are here for the photos and would like to connect click here to go to my contact page!