Photoshop tutorial: Making a Frame

Photoshop and Photoshop Elements have much to offer for framing a photograph. It does take several steps to do it, but once you get the hang of it, the sky is the limit with the kinds of photo frames you can create.

Here are the steps to make a basic photo frame in Photoshop:

1.Before you begin, resize your photo to around 6X9 inches. Navigate to Image > Canvas Size.

2. For a 1in frame, add one inch to the height and width values. (A 6X9 image would be a 7X10 canvas size.) Choose white as the canvas extension colour. (By checking the Relative box, you can enter any number you wish, without the hassle of addition. The program then adds whatever number you put into the width and height fields to the canvas size.)

3. Navigate to Layer > New Layer. (Name it Outer.)

4. Use the Rectangular Marquee tool and make a selection just inside the outer border of the canvas, then Select > Inverse.

5. Navigate to Edit > Fill and choose black for the colour.

6. Navigate to Layer > New Layer. (Name it Inner.)

7. Use the Rectangular Marquee tool and make a selection just outside the inner border of the canvas.

Step five.	Step eight.

8. Navigate to Edit > Fill and choose black for the colour.

9. Navigate to Select > Modify > Contract and type 4 for the value. Then navigate to Edit > Cut.

10. Go to the bottom of the Layers palette and press the "Add a layer style" button, and choose Drop Shadow from the drop-down menu.

11. Play with the Distance, Spread, Size, and Opacity sliders to create your perfect look.

12. Your frame should look something like you see at the bottom. If you want, you can change anything you want — the colours with the Paint Bucket, the rectangle thickness with the Contract option (increase the value for a thicker rectangle around your frame), or the shading with the Drop Shadow option.


This and 100 other ideas for using your photographs can be found in the book - 101 Quick and Easy Secrets for Using Your Photographs. Visit the Quick and Easy Secrets blog for more details.