You might have spotted the latest trend on Instagram for making carousel posts more exciting. They’ve always been a good way to present a body of images and this funky new template now makes carousels more engaging to viewers and also makes your images look rather smart, too.
I’ve rarely used Instagram’s carousel option over the years but this approach feels like a fun way to present images in a manner that’s eye-catching and allows you to stand out from the crowd (for now, at least). As outlined over at Booooooom.com, the Photoshop template takes a few minutes to put together and it’s simply a matter of dropping in a mixture of images into a new file and reshuffling them creatively in a way that makes people want to swipe through your work.
Very simply, create an image that measures 6480 x 1350 pixels, and then use the slice tool to divide it up into segments that are 1080 in width. Then ‘Save for Web’ and export 6 (or more) individual JPEGs, ready for uploading to Instagram.
Presenting 3:2 portrait images on Instagram typically means cropping to a 4:5 ratio. By contrast, this carousel trick really lends itself to 3:2 images, allowing you to create pleasing layouts that work really well on tablets and mobile devices.
White borders around the individual images seems to work particularly well, creating a pleasing sense of negative space.
Creating the template involves using slice tool, a part of Photoshop that I’ve never even encountered before, never mind found a use for it. Please note that if you’re using Photoshop CC 2019, the Save for Web (File > Export > Save for Web) function operates slightly differently to some previous versions, requiring you to set the output for each individual slice. This isn’t immediately obvious but you need to zoom out from the preview and/or hold spacebar to drag the image around, click each slice individually.
