Photo dump maker
A photo dump looks casual and mostly is not. The ones worth swiping have an order - a strong opener, a rhythm of wide and close shots, a quiet closer - and a grade that makes a week of unrelated pictures feel like one roll of film. Here is how to build one as a grid, a swipe set, or both.
- Size
- 1080 x 1350 (4:5) for feed space, or 1080 x 1080
- Grid
- 2 x 2 for four photos, 3 x 3 for nine
- Swipe set
- Up to 5 slides free, 20 on Pro
- Export
- One image per slide, in order
What makes it work
- Open strong, close quiet The first slide decides whether the rest is seen, and the last is what the post leaves behind. Everything between them is where the loose, unedited pictures belong.
- Grade the whole roll together One film recipe across every photo turns a mixed week into a set. It is the single edit that makes a dump look intentional rather than emptied out of a camera roll.
- Alternate wide and close Three landscape shots in a row flatten out. Putting a detail or a portrait between them gives the swipe a pulse.
- Use a grid where the photos are weaker Four ordinary pictures in a 2 x 2 grid read better than four ordinary pictures given a full slide each. The grid cover-fits each cell, so nothing stretches.
- Leave a margin around the grid An even border around the whole grid, and even gutters between the cells, is what separates a collage from a contact sheet.
Templates that fit: Square quad grid, 3 photos and title, Titled Grid Slide Story
Open the editor · Browse the how-to guides
- How many photos should a photo dump have?
- Enough to have a rhythm and few enough to reach the end - most work between 5 and 10. Emaki Studio builds up to 5 slides free and 20 on Pro, and a grid fits several photos on a single slide.
- How do I make mismatched photos look like a set?
- Apply the same film recipe to all of them in Film Lab, then keep one crop shape across the post. Matching grade and shape does more than any layout trick.
- Does the grid crop my photos?
- Each photo is cover-fitted to its cell, so it fills the space and is cropped to fit rather than stretched. You can reposition a photo inside its cell.