For my photo collage, I started with making the background. The first thing I did was make the mountain range, starting from the top. I used the pen tool to create shapes that resembled mountains. I continued this until I got to the point where I though I should add trees. I used the pen tool to create the shapes of the trees, then I copied the ones I made and added them to the image, editing them all slightly to add variety. I shaped them around more random mountain ranges. After I finished the first layer of trees, I copied it, then flipped it horizontally, warped it, then added it behind the first. I changed the fills and added inner glow adjustments to resemble fog. in the valleys. I then copied everything I had done, pasted it, flipped it horizontally, and rotated it 180 degrees to make the reflection, adding the blue overlay with a ripple effect. Then I finished the background with a custom gradient. I copied that layer and added it to the front of the image, changing the opacity so that it would look like the light on the image was affected by the sunset/sunrise.

The next thing I did was make the front object where my images would be. I used the pen tool to create an equilateral triangle, using a triangle frame I found on the internet to trace. Then I saved the triangle as a custom shape so I wouldn't have to make each one. I made the big one, gave it a border, then made the middle one. For all the upside down triangles, I flipped them using a 180 degree rotation. I gave each upright triangle a border because they were in the centers. I added a copy of one of the tree layers and added a mountain range to the right side as well as a cliff edge to the trees on the left and put it atop the big upside down triangle. I gave it a black fill so it would look like a silhouette. Then I used pictures I had previously taken and created clipping masks with the triangles. All of the pictures that have me in them, I took on campus specifically for the project using a Canon 80D DSLR. The pictures without me, are photos I've taken over the years while traveling and camping. I adjusted the images separately, making sure the white balance was good and that the lighting was correct. For the center image, I gave it a black and white adjustment with a pink tint. 

My final project had 80 layers. Layer groups really helped with navigating through them all in the editing process.