Color Grid Photo Display Effect With Photoshop
Written by Steve Patterson |
| A boy with camera |
In this photo effects tutorial, we’ll learn how to display a photo in a grid of randomly colored squares! We’ll use Photoshop’s built-in grid feature as a guide for setting up the initial spacing, then we'll turn it into a pixel-based grid using a couple of Photoshop's rarely-used selection tools. We’ll see how to easily select different squares in the grid with the Magic Wand Tool, how to colorize them with adjustment layers and blend modes, and finally, how to adjust the appearance of the grid itself using layer styles!
This version of the tutorial has been updated for Photoshop CS6 and is also fully compatible with Photoshop CC (Creative Cloud). For CS5 and earlier, you'll want to check out our original Color Grid Design tutorial.
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Here's the image I'll be working with (woman with winter clothing photo from Shutterstock): |
And here's how the color grid design will look when we're
done. Of course, you can use whichever colors you like for your effect.
This is just one example:
Let's get started!
Step 1: Create A New Photoshop Document
Let’s begin by creating a new document for the grid. Go up to the File menu in the Menu Bar along the top of the screen and choose New:
This opens Photoshop’s New dialog box. This effect works best with a square-shaped document, so for this tutorial, I'll set both my Width and Height values to 1000 Pixels.
Of course, feel free to replace my values with whatever dimensions you
need, but again, you'll want a square document for the best results. I'm
not planning on printing this (it will be strictly for on-screen
viewing) so there's no need to worry about the Resolution value (I'll leave it set to its default of 72 pixels/inch), but if you are
creating this effect for print, you’ll most likely want to create a
document larger than 1000 x 1000 pixels and you'll want to set your
resolution to around 240 pixels/inch or higher. Click OK when you’re done to close out of the dialog box. The new document will appear on your screen:
Step 2: Turn On Photoshop's Grid
Next, we'll turn on Photoshop's built-in grid so we can use
it as a guide for creating our pixel-based grid. To turn the grid on,
go up to the View menu at the top of the screen, choose Show, then choose Grid:
The grid will appear as an overlay on top of your document. We'll make some changes to the appearance of the grid next:
Step 3: Adjust The Number Of Grid Lines
We can adjust the number of lines and sections in the grid using Photoshop's Preferences. If you're running Photoshop on a Windows PC, go up to the Edit menu at the top of the screen, choose Preferences, then choose Guides, Grid & Slices. On a Mac, go up to the Photoshop menu, choose Preferences, then choose Guides, Grid & Slices:
