Learn how to make a photo mosaic.

Try these tips for mosaic-making inspiration.

A photo mosaic is a striking and impactful way to turn your photo album into one, beautiful visual. If you want to get creative with this type of photo art but don’t know where to start, try these photography tips to get inspired.

Tips for mosaic making

Mosaic making is an art and a science. You want creativity, color, and high design. But you also want precision, coherence, and an image that makes sense. Strike the balance with these tips.

• Choose a simple source image. The more intricate the source image, the more difficult it is to fill in with smaller images, and the more complicated the resulting mosaic will look. Look for source images with large blocks of color, pronounced shadow, and few details. That way, you can easily fill in shadows, lights, colors, and textures with your images.
• Follow the rule of 150. Make sure you have enough photos to fill in your mosaic. If you don’t have enough images, you won’t be able to size them down enough to create a bigger picture. With too many, you might lose sight of the larger composition. Aim for about 150 pictures for your mosaic, providing the diversity of colors and pixels that a compelling photo mosaic requires.
• Let the colors speak for themselves. Avoid using an auto-colorization tool to create a smoother overall image. While it might look better from a distance, you’ll end up washing out or oversaturating the individual images — and those smaller photos are part of the photo mosaic fun. Let the colors in your images work for the broader composition without forcing it.

Your mosaic maker.

Explore everything you can do with Adobe Photoshop to create stunning photo mosaics and other art with your images.