Photo collage ideas for every occasion

A good collage tells one small story. Before you open the collage maker, decide what the story is. Here are ten ideas that work, each with a layout suggestion and a practical tip.

Birthday: one photo from every year

Collect one photo for each birthday, from the first to this one, and arrange them in order. Nine photos fill a three-by-three grid. For an eighteenth or a fiftieth, pick the nine years that changed the most.

Tip: Add the name and the age at the bottom. Use the square size if it will be a status, or the 4 by 6 size for a printed card.

Wedding anniversary: then and now

Put a wedding-day photo beside a photo taken this year, in the two-photo layout. For a silver or golden jubilee, add the children and grandchildren in a row of small boxes below.

Tip: Old prints can be photographed with a phone. Read the scanning tips in our photo guide first.

Baby's first year: month by month

Twelve months will not fit in nine boxes, so choose: the day of birth, then months 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10 and the first birthday. The change from box to box is what makes people smile.

Tip: Take each monthly photo in the same place, such as the same chair. The baby grows and the chair does not.

Farewell or retirement: the people, not the place

Ask each colleague or classmate for one photo with the person who is leaving. A grid of small group photos says more than one posed picture of the whole office.

Tip: Write the years, for example "2009 to 2026", at the bottom. Print it at A4 size and frame it as the gift.

Festival: one day from morning to night

Tell the day in order: the rangoli, the puja, the new clothes, the food, the lights. Five or six photos in a layout with one large box for the family picture.

Tip: A dark background suits Diwali lights. White suits Holi colours and Onam flowers.

Trip: one wide, three close

Use a layout with one large box and three small ones. Put the widest view in the large box and details in the small ones: food, a signboard, feet in the sand.

Tip: Add the place and the month as the caption. It will matter in ten years.

Family tree: generations in rows

A three-by-three grid reads like a family tree when grandparents are in the top row, parents in the middle and children at the bottom.

Tip: Crop every face to about the same size, so that no one looks more important than the others.

In memory: a life in a few pictures

Choose four to six photos from different ages: childhood, youth, wedding, work, grandchildren. Keep the layout simple, with a white or black background and thin spacing.

Tip: Add the name and the years. Avoid decorations. The photos are enough.

Friendship: the same pose, years apart

Find an old photo of the group and take a new one in the same order and the same pose. Two photos, side by side, need no caption at all.

Tip: If the old photo is small or faded, give it the smaller box and let the new one be large.

School or college: first day and last day

A photo from the first day of school beside one from the last day, or a row of class photos from every year. Teachers and parents treasure these.

Tip: Check with friends before sharing an old class photo widely. Not everyone enjoys their school haircut.

Five rules for any collage

Choose a theme: one person, one day, one place or one comparison.
Choose fewer photos: five good ones beat nine average ones.
Give one photo the main place: a collage needs a hero.
Check every face: after choosing the layout, move each photo so that no face is cut by a border.
Add words last, and few: a name, a date or a place.

Open the collage maker