How to Make an Overlapping Collage on Instagram

Ready to break free from the standard grid and create an Instagram feed that truly stops the scroll? Making an overlapping collage is a powerful way to add visual depth, personality, and a professional touch to your profile, giving your content a scrapbook-like, artistic feel. This guide will walk you through three different methods for creating stunning overlapping collages, from a quick in-app trick to more advanced techniques for complete creative control.

Why Overlapping Collages Command Attention

Before getting into the how-to, let’s quickly cover why this style is so effective. A standard Instagram grid can quickly become monotonous, with square after square looking the same. Overlapping collages shake things up by:

• Creating Visual Depth: Layering photos on top of one another mimics a physical collage, making the final image feel more tangible and dynamic. It moves beyond a flat, two-dimensional presentation.
• Enhancing Storytelling: You can combine multiple moments, products, or details into a single, cohesive image. This allows you to tell a richer story than one photo ever could. Think behind-the-scenes shots layered over a final product, or different angles of an outfit combined in one post.
• Establishing a Strong Brand Aesthetic: Consistently using a specific collage style can become a signature part of your brand’s visual identity, making your content instantly recognizable in a crowded feed.
• Increasing Engagement: Simply put, these posts look different. Their unique composition invites viewers to pause, look closer, and spend more time engaging with your content.

Whether you’re a fashion creator showing off an outfit, a small business highlighting product features, or just someone who wants a more creative feed, this technique is a fantastic tool to have in your content arsenal.

Method 1: The Quick and Easy Way Using Instagram Stories

You don't need any third-party apps for this first method - everything can be done right inside Instagram. This approach is perfect for creating simple, spontaneous collages on the fly. You're essentially building your collage in the Story editor and then saving it to your phone to post on your feed.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Open the Story Camera: Swipe right from your Instagram feed to open the Story creation screen.
2. Set Your Background: You have two options here. You can either take a new photo, select one from your camera roll to serve as the background, or create a solid color background. To create a solid background, snap any photo, tap the “Draw” tool (the squiggle icon), select a color from the bottom, then tap and hold on the screen for a few seconds. The screen will fill with that solid color.
3. Add Your First Layer: Tap the Sticker icon at the top of the screen (the square smiley face). Scroll down and find the “Photo” sticker (it often shows a preview of your most recent image with a picture icon). Tap it to open your camera roll.
4. Select and Position Your Image: Choose a photo to add to your collage. It will appear on your screen as a sticker. You can now use two fingers to pinch, zoom, rotate, and move it anywhere you want.
5. Change the Shape (Optional): Once an image sticker is on your screen, just tap on it. Instagram will cycle it through different shapes - from a rectangle with rounded corners to a circle, star, or heart. This is a great way to add more visual interest.
6. Repeat to Build Your Collage: Go back to the Photo Sticker and add another image. Position this new image so it partially overlaps the first one. You can add as many photos as you like, though 3-5 is usually a good number to avoid looking too cluttered. Since the last photo you add is always on top, think about the order in which you add your images to get the layering right.
7. Save Your Creation: This is the final, most important step. Do not post this to your Story! Instead, tap the three dots in the top-right corner and select "Save." This will download the entire collage you just created to your phone's camera roll as a single image.
8. Post to Your Feed: Now, just create a new feed post like you normally would and select the collage image you just saved from your camera roll. Add your caption and hashtags, and you’re good to go!

This method is great for simplicity and speed, but it offers limited control over professional clean-up tools like background removal, which is where dedicated design apps come in.

Method 2: Full Creative Control with a Design App (like Canva)

For a more polished and professional look, using a design app like Canva is the way to go. This approach gives you pixel-perfect control over layers, allows you to remove image backgrounds for seamless overlaps, and incorporates other graphic elements like text and shadows for extra depth.

Step-by-Step Instructions using Canva:

1. Start a New Design: Open Canva (the mobile app or desktop version works fine) and create a new design using the “Instagram Post (Square)” template. This will give you a perfectly sized canvas of 1080x1080 pixels.
2. Prepare Your Photos with Cutouts: This is the secret to creating truly professional-looking overlapping collages. You want to cut out the main subject from its background. In Canva, upload your photo, select it, and tap “Edit Photo.” From there, choose “BG Remover.” With one click, Canva’s AI will remove the background, leaving you with a clean cutout. (Note: BG Remover is a Canva Pro feature, but free alternatives like remove.bg offer the same service.)
3. Design Your Background: Just like with the Story method, you can set a solid background color or use a full-frame image as your base layer.
4. Add and Arrange Your First Cutout: Place your first transparent-background image onto the canvas. Resize and position it where you want it to be in the final composition.
5. Layer and Overlap: Add your next cutout image. You’ll notice it defaults to sitting on top of the previous image. This is where Canva’s layering tools are so powerful. Select an image, tap “Position” (at the top or bottom menu depending on your device), and you can choose to move it `Forward` or `Backward` one layer at a time, or all the way `To front` or `To back`. This precise control allows you to decide exactly how your images overlap.
6. Add Shadows for Depth: To make your overlaps look even more realistic, add a drop shadow. Select a cutout image, go back to “Edit Photo,” and select “Shadows.” You can choose from various options like `Glow`, `Drop`, or `Outline`. A subtle drop shadow under your top-most layers makes them look like they are physically sitting on top of the images beneath.
7. Complete Your Design: Continue adding and layering your photos. You can also mix in text, graphic elements from Canva’s library, or even hand-drawn scribbles to tie it all together. Play with scale by making some elements big and others small. Once you're satisfied with your layout, download the image as a JPG or PNG file.

Method 3: Advanced Panorama Collages for Carousels

Want to go one step further and create an immersive collage that seamlessly flows across multiple slides of a carousel post? This technique is an absolute showstopper and encourages users to swipe through your entire post.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Calculate Your Canvas Size: The first step is to create an extra-wide canvas. A single Instagram post is 1080 pixels wide. So, for a seamless carousel, multiply 1080 by the number of slides you want.
   • For 2 slides: 2160 pixels wide x 1080 pixels tall
   • For 3 slides: 3240 pixels wide x 1080 pixels tall
   • For 4 slides: 4320 pixels wide x 1080 pixels tall
2. Create Your Collage on the Wide Canvas: In an app like Canva, Photoshop, or an equivalent, create a custom-sized canvas using the dimensions you calculated. Now, build your overlapping collage on this wide backdrop. The key here is to intentionally place your photos, cutouts, and text so they cross over the invisible borders where the slices will happen. For example, have a photo start on the right side of what will be slide 1 and continue onto slide 2.
3. Slice the Image: Once your masterpiece is complete, download the entire wide image. You now need to cut it into equal-sized squares. You can do this with free online tools like `PineTools Split Image` or mobile apps like `Panorama Crop`. Simply upload your wide collage and instruct the tool to split it horizontally into 2, 3, or 4 pieces without any gaps.
4. Upload as a Carousel: The tool will give you individual, 1080x1080px images. Save them to your phone in the correct order (e.g., `image_01`, `image_02`, `image_03`). When creating your Instagram post, tap the “select multiple” icon and choose the images in their numbered order. Instagram will stitch them together into a smooth, swipeable carousel post. The final effect is a single, beautiful collage that a user can explore by swiping.

Final Thoughts

From the simplicity of the Story editor to the total freedom of dedicated design apps and advanced carousels, you have multiple ways to create compelling, overlapping collages. Experiment with these methods to find the workflow that best fits your style and start transforming your Instagram feed into a visually dynamic and engaging gallery.

Once you’ve perfected your signature collage style, having a plan becomes essential for maintaining that polished look. Here at Postbase, we've designed our visual calendar to give you a bird's-eye view of your entire content strategy, so you can easily see how your custom collages fit together visually before they go live. By planning and scheduling your content with Postbase, you can spend more time on the creative process and trust that your feed will remain cohesive and beautiful, every single time.