Place your photo so it's on the layer under the template.

Choosing your Move Tool, hold down your Shift key, click on the corner of the photo and drag your mouse, enlarging the photo so it fits how you would like it in the template space. Holding down your Shift key will maintain your photo's proportions so that it doesn't get smooshed or stretched out of whack.

Once you have your photo sized, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the template layer in the Layers Palette (this is circled in red). Once you have clicked on that, you will see the "marching ants" around the template (as seen above).

Next make sure the photo layer is active (you will see the paintbrush in the box next to the photo). Then, press the Delete key. This will delete any part of the photo the black template is covering. Hold down the Ctrl key and hit the "D" key to get rid of the marching ants.

By making the template layer invisible (click on the eye next to the template layer in the Layers Palette), you will see your photo has been cut out in the shape of your template.

Now you will notice that part of the photo is still there. That's because there was not black template covering that. To get rid of that part of the photo, simply choose your Rectangular Marquee Tool. Select that portion of photo, hit Delete and it will be gone. You will notice what I chose has now been deleted. Once again to get rid of the "marching ants," simply press Ctrl+D.

You can continue doing the same thing with your remaining photos. Just make sure when you are using your Rectangular Marquee Tool to erase that the active layer is the one with the photo on it.

You will notice that I have added a photo in the first small box. After I deleted the extra, there is a small portion of black on the main photo. With the cake layer active in the Layers Palette (the paint brush is next to it), I use the Marquee to select that small portion, and hit Delete.

Once I have added all my photos and made my template layer invisible, this is what I have.

Tutorial uses:

Tutorial written by Angie Briggs