I love the look of filmstrip photos.  You know, the ones you sit in the booth at the mall, make funny faces and then wait 2 minutes for? 

Creating a look similar to this has become ever so popular with scrapbookers recently as a great way to add a lot of little photos to a page.  This especially works for repetitive photos that tell a story such as the ones below of my son climbing into the pool.  I love how all the shots capture the action but to have all of these as full sized photos on a page would not leave much room for anything else.  I have lots of great close-ups of him in the pool that I want to use my focal photos but if I turn these supporting photos into a filmstrip I can still add these to the page without overwhelming it.

Creating a filmstrip is pretty easy in Photoshop.  You just need to do some math first. 

(I know that you are looking at the length of this post and thinking, easy???  Just know that I always break down everything into micro steps so nobody gets lost.  Lots of you will fly through multiple steps in a matter of seconds.)

Decide on the number of photos to be used (my case - 5)

Decide on the size of your photos (my case - 1 ½” x 1”)

Decide on the width of your borders (I always use 1/8” or 0.125”)

Now comes the math. :)

You need to add borders to both sides of your photo so you add ¼” (1/8 + 1/8) to the photo width (my case - 1.5 + 0.25 = 1.75 or 1 ¾”).  This is final width of your filmstrip.

You now need to calculate the length of your filmstrip with borders between each photo and one at the top and bottom.  I always add one border mentally to the bottom of each photo and multiply that by the number of photos.  Then I add in one more border for the very top and you have your final measurement.  Huh?  LOL.  Look at my math and it might make more sense. [my case – take the photo height 1”+1/8”(for a bottom border ) = 1.0125 or 1 1/8”  Now multiply that by the number of photos – 1.125 x 5 = 5.625 or 5 5/8”.  Add to that number one more border for the very top – 5.625 + 0.125 = 5.75 or 5 ¾”.  I swear that was the hardest part!)

So now you have the dimensions of your film strip (my case – 1.75” by 5.75”).

Now open a new document in PS that is this size. File > New and then type in measurements (or Ctrl+N and then type in measurements).

Now crop all your photos to size (my case – 1 ½” x 1”).

Now there are two options here.  You can use your move tool (Shift+V) and click and drag each photo over to the blank filmstrip leaving 1/8” between each photo.  Totally easy but it’s sometimes hard to get precise spacing.

To place a guide click View > New Guide and a pop up window will appear which you can type in where you want the guide to appear.  (while we are on this step make sure you have “snap” turned on – this will make your photos “snap” to your guides when you drag them onto your blank filmstrip).

So again you need to do some math to figure out where the guides are to be.  I make a guide for the left side of the photos and all the tops of the photos.  (my case – vertical guide at 0.125 and horizontal guides at 0.125, 1.25, 2.375, 3.5, 4.625, 5.75 ) When the pop up window appears just choose whether you want a vertical or horizontal line and the measurement you need it at.

The guides will appear on your blank filmstrip as blue lines.  These lines do not print – you only see them on screen.

Now if all that typing in of measurements is not for you, you can also click on the ruler and while holding the button down drag towards the blank canvas and a guide will appear.  You can just look along the ruler to see where you need to place your guide.  I usually do this but it will just depend on how your brain is wired and what method you like to follow. J Seriously, wiring up there is a bit different for everyone.  You can get either vertical or horizontal lines this way.

Once you have all your guides in place you should have something like this.

Now drag all your photos onto the blank filmstrip (use the move tool - Shift+V). Since you have “snap” on, the corner of the photo will just, well, snap in place.

You will now have this. (You should have the same finished look whether you created guides or not.)

Now flatten your image Layer > Flatten Image.  Now your white borders will appear.

You are all set to print this now (remember the blue lines do not print). 

Kind of a lot of steps but if you want to save it as a template you can skip all the set up next time.

To do this go back a few steps to before you added in your photos - the one where you have all the guides in place but it is still a blank filmstrip.  Save it there.  Name the file with the size of photos it takes.  Then next time all you will need to do is open the file, crop your photos and drag them into place.  So fast the second time around!

Now how do you print this?  In this case I could print it on a standard 4x6” photo (remember the final size of the filmstrip is 1.75”x5.75”).  To do this I open up a new document in PS sized 4”x6”.  You can then drag your flattened film strip onto to this blank photo.  Flatten the image and print (or if you are like me and hate to waste photo paper make another filmstrip for another page and print them together on one page.)

Think you will try it?  Let me know or show me what you make.  I would love to see it. :)