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How to make this type of border???


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AndrewF

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Hi All,

I was wondering if anyone could help me make the type of border shown in the attachments.

It is a bit hard to see in such a small image but basically the black border is sort of messy and uneven.

The first image is a little too much of what I am after but if you take away the smudges from the very outside then it looks right. The second image is more of the effect I am after (a little more subtle).

I am using Phootoshop 7 and would like to add this border to lot's of my digital images.

Any help is much appreciated.
 
Hi Andrew... [excited]

Not too difficult to do this actually. Just gotta be creative with a few tools. ;)

Keep in mind that this is but one way to do this. I know many more, but this is quick/easy to explain. Only 4 easy steps! :righton:


1) Make sure you photo is on a layer by itself; and not the default bg layer of your document. It should also have at least 20-30 pixels of empty area around it, so we have room to work. (pic 1)

2) Add a new layer below the photo layer. Use the LASSO selection tool and manually draw out a jagged, sloppy looking selection around the photo. Fill the selection with black. Deselect. (pics 2 & 3)

3) Grab the BLUR tool, set it to 35-50%, and manually blur some spots around the edges. This is user dependant. Use your own taste. Don't go overboard though. Be subtle. Just some selective spots -- 2 maximum on each side. (pic 4)

4) Apply the FILTER>Other>Minimum filter again and set it to between 1-3 pixels; depending on what looks good to you. (pic 4)


And that should do it.

TIP:if you'd like to thin out the border, use the "FILTER>Other>Maximum" filter.

A slight alteration to this method would involve selecting the border shape (step 2) and adding a Layer Mask to the layer. Then applying 1 or 2 specific edge effecting filters to the mask -- like "Spatter".
Experiment with this too if you like.

The added bonus of using the alternative method is you can experiment with specific filters and not have to redo the whole main border image if something gets mucked up. Just reselect the border shape, invert the selection, and fill it with white; which rests the shape on the mask. So you can just start over with your experimenting.

Hope that helps. [slick]
 
Hi The Keeper,

Thanks for your excellent reply...

I have followed your steps and here is what I have come up with (sorry about the size)

What do you think?

The only thing I did different was add blur to all the edges, they looked a little too sharp... and add a small inner bevel to the actual photo, to try and make it blend with the border.

Andrew
 
Hey that looks ok Andrew. I love the photo, looks like he's having some fun. [excited]

You should try to leave "some" definition in the border though, otherwise it's no more interesting to look at than a plain ol' vignette. Right?

Here... here's another one with a bit more to it.

A couple filters used on this one:

1- Select photo.
2- Click "New Channel" icon in channels palette.
3- Click on the channel, then Deselect.
4- Spatter filter with max settings.
5- gBlur 3 pixels.
6- Levels filter -- drag black and white sliders inward till border edges get clean/hard.
7- Apply Fragment filter. (Pixelate>Fragment)
8- Crystallize filter -- size=10-15.
9- Minimum filter 5 pixels.
10- Paint Daubs filter -- default settings.
11- Ctrl-click the channel to load it as a selection.
12- Add new layer below photo, and fill selection with black.
13- Select photo again.
14- Click on the photo layer, and add a layer mask to it.
15- Repeat steps 4 through 8, then jump to 10.

And that's it.
TIP: If you want the frame a little darker, just duplicvate the border layer once or twice.

Neat looking effect. :B
 
Excellent experimenting, Mark! Wonderful effects.

Andrew, the examples you've posted very strongly resemble Auto FX's Picture Edges plug-in. Very neat effects, VERY pricey plug-in.
The good news is they do offer a demo for 30 days, so you might want to play with it a bit...
Here is the link. If you check out the posted examples, you'll see what I mean.
http://www.autofx.com/detail_pages/pgedetail.html

Madster
 
Oh ya sorry... i forgot to mention that that specific border in your example image was done with the AutoFX plugin... hahaha DOH! [doh]

Thanks Madster! :righton:
 
Thanks again for all your comments... I did check out the AutoFX demo and then looked at the price and went "yeah right!!!"

I have found some brushes on the net which I have used to make the below border... I really like this one.
 
Hey ya that's a good one Andrew. More subtle.

I don't see why it's absolutely neccessary to use a plugin for this kind of thing; for the average user. Only for those with high-stress jobs and tight time restrictions should a 3rd party filter be used for something of this nature.

I personally enjoy doing these funky borders "manually". They're fun. :righton:
 
AndrewF said:
I did check out the AutoFX demo and then looked at the price and went "yeah right!!!"
Click to expand...
Exactly ;)
See, the more you experiment with Photoshop, the less you have to rely on these expensive plug-ins.
To be honest; there are only a few plug-ins that do things that can't easily be done in Photoshop, but people who are new to Photoshop need don't see that right away, because it takes time :)
 
actually, I use PhotoFrame because its fast and I can consider new ideas, try different frames and put on a separate layer to rework in PS if necessary. I agree with everyone, wonderful frames can be made in ps without a separate application. But I always seem to fall back on PhotoFrame. Here's an example. It probably detracts from the picture, I just made it quickly using the first one that poped up. With a little tinkering, a more simpatico frame would evolve I am sure.
 
Fabulous effect, Joy!

To do some of those effects 'by hand' in PS takes a long time, with a lot of trial and error.

Gotta admit, if it wasn't as expensive as photo shop to only give me edges, I'd be drooling for that plug in!

As is, the reason I mentioned it was the 30 free trial. It's a fun way to try different apps, including the ones most people can only dream of having...
 
Oh Joy... oh Joy!

This took a couple minutes to make. ;)

BTW... i HAVE the Extensis PhotoFrame plugin. It's good for what it does, i won't argue that. Only thing i ever really use it for though is to get some visual ideas for my own custom frames. :D
 
oh Mark oh Mark -- Nice! probably the half-tone filter?

Yes, all their frames can me made in ps. The advantage for me with PhotoFrame, I can quickly test several frames when I don't have a clue which is best.

Another feature I lean on is I can quickly pile many frames on the art, using different settings, colors and opacity for a more involved look.
 
Ya i agree Joy. The plugin is good for that. The only way to match that functionality would be to take a day in PS and create a bunch of your own borders, then convert them to Vector Shapes and make a custom library out of them.

That's what i'd do. :D
 
Mark --make a custom library out of them.
Click to expand...

..and you forgot to mention, save about $250.00 doing it that way -- [excited] [excited] [excited]

I do have a custom frame that PhotoFrame does not offer and that's the curly edge frame and I learned how to make here. I think Stu tought me. I use it many times. I guess I could load it into PhotoFrame but its so handy to grab from separate file.

Aside: I guess we worked this subject to its death, right Mark?
 
Personally, I prefer a more traditional frame... %} (Sorry, I couldn't help myself!)

For many years I purchased frames from a wholesale framer and good friend who would do custom work for artists because he himself was an artist in moldings. When he finally went digital a couple of years ago, I helped him with Photoshop Elements and couldn't help myself but started framing attachments to him in classic frames as a joke. They come from a cheap Human Software plug-in called, appropriately, Classic Frames and I still use them occasionally as a spoof of 'fine art."
 
Welles - that's a beauty! good job on the gold, looks real to me. Reminds me of a challenge we had on PST where a wallpaper guy wanted to know the trick to make gold look real on his online wallpaper samples. He had bit of gold running through the paper.

Worked out that the best looking golds online didn't print out well for him. }:\
Kinda interesting project. I don't rem the final solution for print and online. [saywhat]

Joyful
 
Joy,

I'll agree it looks pretty realistic but I can't take much credit for it, other than buying the plug-in and knowing how to tweak the settings a bit along with a little post plug-in editing.

The Classic Frame plug-ins themselves have one fatal flaw in my estimation. When a square image is framed you can get all four sides to be approximately equal widths but when the proportions become rectangular, while the opposite sides are equal widths, adjacent ones are mis-matched having one wider than the other.

I suggested to the developers that they try to do something to eliminate that issue as it subtracted from the verisimilitude of the effects but there must be a distinct limitation in how the software is written for that was never addressed although they did send me a second version of the software which did attempt a work around by having landscape and portrait frames and were a bit better than the first version.

There is an additional flaw. When the frames are rendered there are generally 1-3 pixel lines, which are still the original image, residing outside the newly rendered frame. That results in a bit more post plug-in editing and the single pixel marquees come in handy!

However, even though the software is cheap, I can't endorse it without noting the fairly serious flaws because most plug-in users just presume you can click and play, so to speak.

Oh well...
 
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