STEP BY STEP Three is the magic number

Build your triptych in Photoshop, and learn essential design skills

01 Create a new document

Go to File>New. Choose a width and height – here we’ve gone for Width 20 inches, Height 11 inches, Background White. Set resolution to 300 pixels/inch. Click OK. Make sure the grid is in inches ( Photoshop>Preferences> Guides, Grids and Slices), then go to View>Show>Grid.

02 Draw your frames

Click and hold on the Shape tool in the Tools panel and choose the Rectangle tool. Drag out a box for your first image frame, using the grid as a guide and making sure there’s room for three frames of the same size. Take the Move tool, hold Alt and drag the box to create two copies.

03 Add the first image

Open your three images in Photoshop. Select the Move tool, and check Auto-Select Layer and Show Transform Controls. Drag an image up to the tab of your new file then down to copy it in. In the Layers panel, move the image layer just above the box layer you want it to fill.

04 Create a clipping mask

Hold down Alt and click the line in the Layers panel that separates the image layer from the box layer below. This clips the image, so only the area within the outline of the box is visible – you can crop the image in different ways within the box, and tweak its position, at any stage.

05 Resize and reposition

Highlight the image layer and click the bounding box to transform it – hold down Shift and drag the corners to resize, or drag outside the box to rotate. When you’re happy with the positioning, hit Enter to apply. Repeat steps 3-5 to add and position the other two images.

06 Add a key line

You can add a key line to the edges of each frame if you like. Make a new layer at the top of the stack, then hold down Cmd/Ctrl+Shift and click the box layer thumbnails to load their outlines as selections. Go to Edit>Stroke. Set a width such as 10px, set Colour to black and hit OK.