Adding a Frame - Part II

This time I'll show how you can create great looking frames for your images in Photoshop. Photoshop is a very powerful and flexible image editing software. Please keep in mind that often less is more! The frame should not end up being so large and gaudy that it swallows up the image contained within. Primarily a border should contain the eye within the constrains of the image, as well as add just a touch of spice to an already great photograph.

1) Just use the “CANVAS SIZE” tool (under Image –> Canvas Size) to create the border. The nice part about the “Canvas Size” tool is that you can set the exact number of pixels in each direction to expand. Additionally, you can have it be “relative” meaning you can tell it how many pixels bigger than it currently is, to draw. What I did in the example above was to set a black background to be relatively 2 pixels larger than my picture (which is 2048*1536). Then I set a white background to be relatively 100 pixels larger. To have enough room for the text, I added another 200 pixels of the white background to the bottom of the picture. To get the outer black frame, I switched back to a black background and set it to be relatively 5 pixels larger. You may need to change the number of pixels based on how large your picture is.

2) To add the text, click the Horizontal Type tool and select a relatively plain font. In my example I used Myriad Pro, black color, 60 pt, all caps, centered. You can adjust the spacing between the font characters if you select the text and then change the properties in the text window. To center the text below the image, select both the text layer and the image layer and choose Layer > Align > Horizontal Centers.

3) If you want to edit a series of photos, you can create an ACTION step in photoshop that can duplicate all these steps for you with one click so you can automate a batch of photos to all have this same frame on them.

Adding a Frame - Part I

A frame can give the photograph a smart and professional look. Frames can also be used to separate the picture from the background when image borders are not clearly defined. You can create great looking frames for your images in Photoshop or with other photo-editing software - I will add a Photoshop tutorial in one of my future posts.

1) To be as flexible as possible don’t add a border to the picture itself in Photoshop - instead the framing happens in the HTML-Code or in the CSS-Stylesheet.

no border	border 2px, padding 4px

2) Some easy-to-use image editors such as a Paint Shop Pro and Picnik allow you to directly add a frame.

For example, Picnik allows you to add different frames with Create -> Frames. Then you can choose between a number of different styles. Two are shown below.

Border	Museum Matte

If you use Paint Shop Pro X2 all you have to do to add the border is go to Image —> Add Borders. Type in the size of the borders you want, pick the color and click on Ok.