Creaticity: Place photos inside text using Photoshop
Create the document and add letters
Choose File > New to create a new document at the size you desire. If you're going to print the piece, enter between 240--300 for resolution; if not, enter 72.
Press T to grab the Type tool, click within your document and add the first letter--don't worry about formatting just yet. While the Type tool is still active, mouse away from the first letter and Shift-click to create another type layer. Enter another letter and repeat until you've created each letter of the word on its own layer. Activate the type layers by Command-clicking near their layer names in the Layers panel or, if the topmost type layer is active, Shift-click the bottom type layer.
With the Type tool active, choose a big, thick font from the font menu in the Options bar and increase the font size so the letters are really big (Gill Sans Ultra Bold at 244 points was used here). It doesn't matter what color the text is, but you do need a big, thick font so there's room for the photo to show.
Press V to grab the Move tool and drag to reposition the letters so you've got fairly equal space between the letters and between the edges of the document.
Insert the pictures
Perhaps the most challenging part of this project is finding pictures where your subjects are close enough together to fit inside a letter. Once you've rounded up some pictures, activate the "L" type layer and choose File > Place Embedded. Navigate to where the photo lives and click Place. Photoshop adds the image and surrounds it with a resizing box; just Shift-drag any corner handle to resize it.
Press V to grab the Move tool and position the photo atop the letter you want to push it through. Choose Layer > Create Clipping Mask to push the image through the shape of the layer beneath it. To resize the image inside the letter, press Command-T to summon Free Transform, Shift-drag any corner handle, and press Return when you're finished. To reposition a photo inside a letter, ensure the image layer is active and then use the Move tool.
When you're finished, activate the "O" type layer and repeat this process until you've plopped a picture into each letter.
Embellish and tint it
To make the letters stand out, try adding layer styles such as a stroke and a drop shadow. You can also add a festive background image as the bottom layer in your Layers panel. Since it's unlikely that the colors in your photos will match, try adding a color tint to introduce consistency across the imagery.
Activate the layers that you want to tint and then pop them into a layer group (folder) by pressing Command-G. Next, choose Layer > New Adjustment Layer> Hue/Saturation. In the resulting panel, click the clipping icon (circled) at lower left to clip (restrict) the adjustment layer to the contents of the group. Back in the Properties panel, turn on Colorize (also circled) and then experiment with the Hue and Saturation sliders to find a pleasing color.
Save and send or print
To save your document with the layers intact, choose File > Save As and choose Photoshop from the format menu. To print your masterpiece, just choose File > Print. To prepare a copy to send via email, choose File > Save for Web. From the menus at upper right, choose JPEG and Maximum. If you're posting the image on Facebook, choose PNG--8 or PNG--24 instead; that way, Facebook's compression algorithm won't completely destroy the quality of your image.
Until next time, may the creative force be with you all!
PhotoLesa.com founder Lesa Snider is the author of the best-selling a Photoshop CC: The Missing Manualbooks, coauthor ofiPhoto: The Missing Manual, author ofThe Skinny Bookebook series, a founding creativeLIVE instructor, and regular columnist for Photoshop User and Photo Elements Techniques magazines.