In this video you will learn how to create a modular photo gallery in Photoshop. I will show you how to create a grid layout and how to use the Frame Tool (K) to make placeholders for your Photoshop gallery so you can quickly drag & drop your images onto them.
Tutorial result
How to create a photo gallery in Photoshop quickly and easy
Masonry galleries are the hardest type of gallery you can create in Photoshop because there can be irregular numbers or rows or columns. But if you use a modular grid system you can create a photo gallery in Photoshop in no time. If you’re new to Photoshop check my free Photoshop course here.
Create a new document blank document in Photoshop with the desired dimensions and go to View>New Guide Layout (if this option is not available it means you’re using a pretty old version of Photoshop. Consider upgrading.)
The settings for the layout grid will depend on your needs. You will need to make some basic planning here for your gallery layout. My advice is to try to have enough cells on your layout so that you have enough flexibility to create any size for each individual photo. I try to set up the columns and rows in a way that I get square cells on my layout or as close as possible to a square shape because that makes it easier later on when drawing the image placeholders.
Design a photo gallery in Photoshop
You can create an easy drag & drop gallery in Photoshop using the Frame Tool (K). This tool was introduced in Photoshop CC and it’s very useful for making image placeholders on your document.
In order to design your gallery in Photoshop, it is a good idea to determine what layout you want for it. In my case I chose the 3rd type where all rows have the same height and the columns number varies.
If you want your columns with images to fit perfectly on your document you must divide the total amount of rows by the amount columns you want to have and you will get the number of cells that each column must have.
Draw the image placeholders using the Frame Tool. When you start drawing the tool will snap to the grid so it’s really easy to draw the placeholders for your images. Check the video for more details on how I designed my gallery.
Once your layout is created, just drag and drop your images over the placeholders and populate your gallery. If you want to replace and image simply drop another image over it and Photoshop will replace it. All images used for this demo gallery have been downloaded from Pexels.
