After traveling to Europe, I came home with hundreds of photographs to scrapbook. Some were great for a multi-photo layout and some needed their own special page. To highlight one special photograph, I broke the photograph up into sections and centered it. You can easily do the same to any photograph.

Supplies:

• Adobe Photoshop Elements or CS
• digital photographs

Optional embellishments:

• Manhattan Solids - Jesse Edwards, DesignerDigitals.com

Instructions:

1. Create a New Document. Got to File/New and choose the following: Width - 12 inches, Height - 12 inches, Resolution - 300, Color Mode - RGB Color, Background - White. Select OK.
2. Choose the Background. For a background use a digital patterned paper or create a background. In my example I used a white background created by Jesse Edwards of DesignerDigitals.com. Open the digital paper and drag it to the document while holding the shift key to center the document. Alternatively, the background can be created by using the New Layer Fill option from the Layer menu. Keep the background layer at the bottom so all the other layers will go on top of it.
3. Create a Clipping Mask. Select the Rectangular Tool. Before proceeding, make sure the foreground color is set to a color other than the background color you chose in Step 2. If the foreground color is the same color you will not be able to see the clipping mask. My background is white so my foreground is black. It will create a black clipping mask. Draw a square on the document.
   
   
   
   To edit the shape of the clipping mask select Edit/Free Transform Path. Move the handles for the desired shape. For my box, I created a 2 ½" x 2 ½" box.
4. Multiply and Arrange the Clipping Masks. Duplicate the layer to create four clipping masks. Arrange them in a four-square grid. Link the four clipping masks together. Merge the four layers together at Layer/Merge Linked.
   
   
   
   
5. Add the Photograph. Edit the photograph and drag it on top of the four-grid clipping mask. Select Layer/Create Clipping Mask. To edit the shape of the photograph select Edit/Free Transform Path. Hold the Shift key and pull the corners to reduce the photograph to the desired size.
   
   
   
   
6. Add Title. Select the Horizontal Type tool. Insert it into the space for the title. Using a font menu, choose font size, style and color. I chose Inked God font at 30 point in black. I repeated the process and added a subtitle underneath using Century Gothic at 12 point. Use the move tool to position the text.
   
   
7. Add a Graphic Border. To create a graphic look, you can add a border around the photograph, intersecting with the text. Create a new layer. Next, select the rectangular marquee tool. Starting two inches from the top of the layout and two inches from the left side of the layout, draw a box that extends around the top picture and down over the bottom picture. Keep your box two inches from the bottom as well. Go to Edit - Stroke. Choose a pixel width. The higher the pixel number the thicker the border will appear. Double click on the color to choose a color. I chose 4 px and black color. Click OK to choose the color. Click OK to accept changes. To remove part of the border, select it with the rectangular marquee tool and select cut to remove it.

Follow these steps for an easy and beautiful way to highlight a photograph.