AndrewF

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.

Blinky2004

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]


[size=18px]1)[/size] 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)

[size=18px]2)[/size] 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)

[size=18px]3)[/size] 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)

[size=18px]4)[/size] 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][size=12px][/size][size=12px][/size][size=12px][/size]

AndrewF

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

Blinky2004

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

Hercules

WOW Mark this border is awsome! I love it. [righton] :}

Blinky2004

Ya me too, thx. And it was mostly experimental too.

MsOz

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

Blinky2004

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]

AndrewF

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.

Blinky2004

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]