Storyboards and their popularity are growing as we speak. The desire to take a group of photos to the next level interest everyone...let's be honest. You can find many pre-made storyboard actions and templates all over the net. In fact if you're wanting to skip the whole "do it yourself" movement I recommend checking out MCP Actions Jodi over at MCP Actions has a whole mess of storyboard actions for you to choose from. But if you're like me and you're a cheap ass who likes to do stuff yourself then you're in the right place.

Let's start with the basic. First you have to decide what size you want your final product most storyboards run at a 10x20 or 20x30 length, but you can make them any size you want. Today I'm going to show you how to make a story board using an 11x14 base. Meaning that the whole thing would fit into an 11x14 frame.

So go to file and click File>New set the size you want and make sure the background color is white. Truly you can pick any color you want here. But for this example I chose white. Once you have your picture open you need to open up the Grid

This is done by simply going up to the View Tab and click View>Show>Grid

Now you're blank image should look like this. Once the grid is up you have to bring out your talent in math and start deciding where you want your pictures to go and what size you want each of them to be. When you've done you're going to start dragging out the Guides. From the side of your image you will see a set of "rulers" one going horizontal and one going vertical. Using the Move Tool click on the rulers and pull out each guide one at a time. Lining them up where you want them to outline where each photo is going to go.

at this point I recommend turning the Grid off. To do this just go back up to View and Click View>Show>Grid your image will now look something like this.

Of course your's will be laid out the way you want it and you will know what each box represent to you. Now that the boxes for each image are chosen we have to make a new layer for each box. Click on the Marquee Tool and highlight the area that is your first box.

Once the box is highlighted you need to right click inside the box and select layer via copy.

Next you're going to highlight the area again. This time using the Magic Wand Tool.

This will highlight the area you just had selected exactly the way you had it before you made the layer so that the lines line up perfect. Now you're going to fill the area with a solid color I use black because its easy to see but you don't have to use black at all. Do this by clicking the Paint Bucket Tool

Now fill the layer with the solid color its going to look something like this

You will repeat the process over and over again until all the spots where you want images are full. Making sure each spot is on it's own layer. Name these layers if you want or not it doesn't matter.

Now you have the template at this point I would save it making sure to save it in a PSD form because you don't want the image to flatten DO NOT FLATTEN YOUR IMAGE

Next you're ready to add the pictures into the template. This is where the easy/fun part comes in. Choose the images you want and where you want them before you get started it makes things easier later down the road.

Open up all the images at once so that they are right there when you need them. This part goes pretty fast once you get the hang of it.

*Note it helps at this point to size the images down to a smaller size like a 4x6 or even smaller. However I did not do that when I was making this tutorial because I forgot*

Click back on your template image

now that you are back on your template highlight the layer that you want the first image to go into. Then drag and drop the images you are going to use into your template. If you had the right area select your image layer will fall right above the box layer you're going to put it into. At first nothing is going to happen and you are going to think you just wasted all this time reading this tutorial for nothing and that I'm a loony but we're not done yet.

Right click on the layer containing your image and click Create Clipping Mask

This is going to put that image inside your pre-made box at this point size the image, and move it around inside the box to get it to look the way you want. You can do this by clicking at the top Edit>Free Transform. This is going to put a transforming box around your image and allow you to pull and bush the images however you want it.

*Note to keep the image form intact press the shift key while you are moving the transforming box around*

Do this for all the images until each one if set the way you want it.

Congratulation you just made your first storyboard file. Now save the image and you are good to go.