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 About
Jon...
Jon Canfield is a digital imaging instructor and co-author of “Photo Finish:
The Digital Photographer’s Guide to Printing, Showing, and Selling Images”
by Sybex. You can visit Jon on the web at www.joncanfield.com.
I get many e-mails from people asking how to create borders or frames for their
digital images. There are many ways to do this regardless of the program you
use. Of course, Photoshop and the programs that support Photoshop plug-ins have
the advantage of numbers in available options. While you can spend several hundred
dollars for a package that will enable you to create frames and edge effects,
you can also get by with much less expensive choices, or do it yourself if you
wish.
Taking The Easy Way Out
One of the best commercial plug-ins for Photoshop is PhotoFrame 2.5 from Extensis
(www.extensis.com). PhotoFrame
not only offers a ton (well, thousands anyway) of ready-made frames, you can
customize and combine them to your heart’s content. For this image (Figure
1) taken in Bodie, California, I wanted a nostalgic look. Converting it to black
and white got me part of the way there, but a trip to PhotoFrame to apply an
acid-edge effect gave it that vintage look, like many early photographs. Then
I finished the image off with tabs at the corners to simulate a photo album.
PhotoFrame retails for $199, so it’s not an option for everyone.
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Figure 1: Using Extensis PhotoFrame, I added a nostalgic look
to this image as well as photo corners to simulate a scrapbook
look.
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The other commercial product that I’ve been impressed with is Auto FX
Photo/Graphic Edges 6.0 (www.autofx.com)
at $179. Photo/Graphic Edges has an advantage as it runs either as a Photoshop
plug-in or as a stand-alone program, making it compatible for everyone. Like
PhotoFrame, effects can be combined and customized for a unique effect. For
the tulip image, I selected an edge brush to paint in areas of the image and
then selected a classic frame style (Figure 2).
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Figure 2: For the tulip photo, I used Auto FX Photo/Graphic Edges
with an Edge brush and created a simple black frame.
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Of course, $180 or more isn’t pocket change for most people, so you
may want to explore some of the other options available. Photoshop users can
find a number of Actions on the net that work well but don’t offer the
customization or number of choices that the big boys do. FM Frames from www.fredmiranda.com
will set you back just $12, while the FrameStyles package from www.chainstyle.com
gives you 600 different options for only $10, and their impressive Bevel Wood
Frames is also $10. More frame-and-edge Actions and plug-ins as well as other
goodies are available at the Adobe Exchange site, share.studio.adobe.com.
Photoshop even comes with a couple of Actions to get you started. The Default
Actions set includes Wood Frame, which gives you an attractive frame perfectly
sized for Web images. If you use Photoshop Elements, you have a whole set of
frames available in the Styles and Effects palette. Select the one you want
and drag it onto your image for instant results.
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