How do I put a "frame" around an image?

[whited3]

I'm sure my terminology is wrong but.....how is this done? I mean the foreground picture on the background white, with edge effect.

I assume the white is a background layer, the picture is a smaller layer, but beyond that I've got no idea.

So how to do it and what is the terminology please

I'm working in CS5 BTW.


Example image by WilliamS, pinched from one of the CiC comps.

[Donald]

Mark

I use The GIMP, so I'll let the CS5 users come in and tell you how to do it with that package.

[jiro]

First, Load your image inside photoshop CS5.

1. Now, press ALT and keep it pressed while double-clicking the background layer box on the layers pallete. (Not the thumbnail area but anywhere in the box). You should see that from seeing "background" it now shows "layer 0" as the name of the image box. The reason why you do this is to "unlock" the image layer to make it editable and movable.

2. Now, press the small "create a new layer" button on the layers pallete (beside the trash can button) to create a new layer. This new layer will now be the layer that you will use for your frame. It is labeled "layer 1" by default. You will also notice that is was placed on top of layer 0.

3. Now, click "layer 0" and drag it above "layer 1".

4. Click layer 1 to highlight it.

5. On the tools palette (left side of your CS5 window, select the CROP tool. Start dragging your mouse from the top most left part down to the right most down part to select the whole layer 1 image area. You should see control handles appearing on your image boundaries. This control handles are adjustable. By adjusting them, you can actually increase the size of the image area without entering any numerical values. By simply dragging the handles (small squares in the middle of the lines) outward that determines the "extra" image space for your frame. Once you're done with the dragging (top, bottom, left and right) just press enter to let CS5 accept this new image size.

6. By default, you would see a new transparent area extending outside the image area. If you want to color it white (or black), just use the "paint bucket tool" on the tools palette and then click it anywhere the frame area. This action will fill the frame with the color you selected.

That's it! Once you get the hang of it, it will only take you less than 2 minutes to finish the whole process.

7. If you want to make it "fancier" you can add some drop shadow effects to the original image area and you can also add your own copyright logo or signature on the frame area.

Hope this helps. If the instruction is a little bit confusing, wait for other members to tell you their own way of adding a frame to an image. Good luck!

[carregwen]

Load it to Flickr and use Picnic edit.

[MiniChris]

Jiro...no offense, but whoa, that's really complicated (though I suspect you have it down to a science now and can do it in your sleep)...my way is quick and dirty and can get the novice up and running pretty quickly. This works in every version of photoshop I've ever used.
...this is how I do it.

Control A to Select the image
File New to open a blank document and resize it (I generally add about 40 mp)
Control V to paste image into new file
Layer tool to Layer Style and select either "Stroke" for outline or Drop Shadow or both (two separate edits)
Layer - flatten image and viola, you're finished.
After you master this verson, you can adapt to almost anyone's style.

If you want to keep selecting and reopening new blank pages, you can do a bunch more.

Of course, now I am going to go see what flicker does.

[Katy Noelle]

Load it to Flickr and use Picnic edit.

For Pete's sake! Last week, I spent all this time googling how to frame a photo and could only find photoshop tutorials. I should've just asked! Thank you, Rob, you're my hero!

[carregwen]

For Pete's sake! Last week, I spent all this time googling how to frame a photo and could only find photoshop tutorials. I should've just asked! Thank you, Rob, you're my hero!

Actually, you can use Picnik in native mode, without Flickr (if you don't want to have a Flickr account) but there are some restrictions on the size that you can make the frames. You have to register, but it's free. It's probably easier to do it in Flickr.

What I do is

1. Resize image in Photoshop
2. Use the Flickr uploader tool to upload to Flickr (it's much better than doing it manually)
3. Edit with Picnik from Flickr
4. Save the file as a replacement
5. Select the image and get the link for the required size
6. Post into CiC thread.

http://www.flickr.com/tools/

http://www.picnik.com/app#/home/welcome

[Wirefox]

Or if you want to do it the hard way.....

Actually it takes a few seconds when part of your work flow

[PopsPhotos]

I needed a frame the other day, for the first time. I just told PSE to resize the canvas and make it black. It looks quite nice, hanging in the Art Center, waiting for the show's grand opening, tomorrow night.

Pops

[Colin Southern]

Or if you want to do it the hard way.....

Actually it takes a few seconds when part of your work flow

and even less when you assign it to a button as part of an action

[whited3]

Chris, your method seems to work great and is dead easy. Thank you.

[MiniChris]

I am not much of doing complicated for the sake of doing complicated, but when you learn one way, it seems like the best to you and I think that's how everyone else feels. I learned this by trial and error and intuitive logic having done similar layering things in PS. Now, if I can only learn how to do some other things in PS, I will be most happy.

[ScoutR]

I needed a frame the other day, for the first time. I just told PSE to resize the canvas and make it black. It looks quite nice, hanging in the Art Center, waiting for the show's grand opening, tomorrow night.

Pops

That's what I do to Pops. I was worried that I was not making it complicated enough. If I want a different colour I just select Other and then use the eyedropper to match the colour that I want.

Have a good show. Can you show us the shot you have on display?

Wendy

[BongoBob]

I use Picasa, more or less as a file browser/organizer. It updated this morning and there is now an "edit in Picnik" button; It loads the image in Picnik, and allows you to save either a copy or replacement all within Picasa. I gave it a go with a web sized image and the integration is pretty seamless. A full sized image is pretty sluggish, but that seems normal considering it is a web based application.

[PopsPhotos]

Wendy, this is the one I was talking about. It is a picture taken by one of my students. He titled it, "Lake or Sky?" The local newspaper was there and interviewed him, his parents and me. The reason they were so interested? "Somebody" leaked the fact that he is just 10 years old.



He focused on the subject, just as I told him to. He included only that which was the subject, just as I told him to. He didn't frame it for 8x10" crop, so we had to print it at 8x12" and frame it in 11x14" That was the reason for the black border. The frame we chose is simple black with no decorative extras. It got quite a few nice comments. The title and credit plaque on the wall did not give his age, so the comments were based on the merits of the picture.

Pops

[Alis]

and even less when you assign it to a button as part of an action

In fact it becomes so easy, you can do 10 of them in less than a minute:

[WilliamS]

Try this , This is how I did the Drop Shadow Border on the image you used


See how I go with a tute on Drop Shadow framing on a PC , Photoshop and a large file TIFF or Large JPG , I usually use a TIFF file ,
#1, Load an image for Framing into Photoshop, I know this works from CS 2 onwards

#2, Just trust me on this!! Ctrl A, Shift Ctrl J, Alt Ctrl C, This brings up a little box "Canvas Size"

#3, In the new size boxes I use Inches, Note: For my 8.2mp images I use 1 inch , for Cameras like the 50D you may have to increase this to 1.5 inches , Tick "Relative" and Background colour White , Click OK

#4, You should have a white border around the image , down on the bottom right click on the FX button, Click on "Drop Shadow" and a Layer Style box will appear, Make sure Drop Shadow is ticked,

4a, Set,Blend Mode to Multiply, Opacity 40, Untick Global Light, Change the Angle to 49, Distance to 40, Spread 16, Size 57, Untick Anti Aliased, Tick Layerknocks out Drop Shadow , Click OK.

#5, That's pretty much it , If your happy with just the drop Shadow, Flatten image at this point , Done. I like to put a little stroke around as well , Thats the little white line around the image , Dont flattern, To put the stroke on stay with me.

#6, Click the little FX button again and click on stroke , Layer style box will appear again , this time make sure Drop Shadow and Stroke Boxes are ticked, Set size, I usually use 2px, It's your choice, Position, "Inside" , Opacity 100,

#7, Now the Colour of the Stroke, Click on Colour Box, It brings up a box called Select Stroke Colour, Your Choice, I always use White , Look in colour libraries , Select Colour , when happy Click OK, Click OK on the Layer Style Box as well , Thats it Done, Flattern Image

My first Tute, Hope this works for everybody - cheers Bill , If you have a Problem just post and Ask After all that Typing , Should look like this in the end.

BTW: Ive saved this as an Action on my F8 Key, One hit

[whited3]

Thanks Bill. Worked a treat! BTW I'm originally from Palm Beach but live in Brisbane south side these days. Thanks for the "loan" of your pic!

[WilliamS]

I'ts a small world . I'm down near the Pines Shopping centre at South Palmy No worries about the loan , Hope the Tute worked well - Cheers Bill

[DavidM]

A few people have mentioned using actions to create frames. Users of PSE can't create actions but they can run (some) actions created in PS. Maybe someone would be so kind as to make these actions available to PSE users. It's a .atn file in Windows. My version, PSE8, has an "effect" to create a frame with drop shadow, but I'm not sure if it was there originally, as I have added a few extras from various places.

David