Computers and Scrapbooking. The two go hand in hand these days. The main reason for this, besides the increased popularity of digital cameras, is photo editing software, like Photoshop. Programs like Photoshop are so powerful that they are like having a digital darkroom. Programs such as these not only allow you to fix your photos, they allow you to do creative things that can enhance your pages dramatically. One technique is adding borders to photos.
Using the Stroke Tool to Create a Border
Like most things in photoshop, there are several ways to do this. Here are just a few of the easier and more useful ways. These instructions are written for Photoshop Elements 4.0 (PSE), but if you use another version, or a different program, the instructions should be similar. For this tutorial, I will be using a stock photo for example, provided by www.sxc.hu. You can find many photos here that are royalty free, to use for practice. Pick a photo of your own to follow along, just make sure you always save your photo with a different name before you make any changes, you don’t want to permanently alter your original photo.
The easiest method, by far, to add a border to a photo is by using the “stroke” command in PSE. To use this method, select the entire photo, by going to Select>All and then using the stroke command, which you will find by going to Edit>Stroke
The Stroke window will then pop up, and you will have several options to choose from. First you will need to choose how wide of a border you want, in pixels, and the color of that border. You can leave the other settings alone. The more pixels, the wider the border will be. For a very thin border, 1-5 pixels will do. If you want a wider, more prominent border, you’ll want to choose a higher number of pixels. Play with the numbers, you can always undo (CTRL+Z) and change the settings to try again. In this next image, I used a medium border, in a Navy Blue so that it would stand out for this tutorial. You will want to use a complimentary color for your photo.
You can play with the settings in the Stroke window to create different effects. Choosing a different blend mode and/or opacity can give you different effects. Take some time to play and see what effects these different settings create. Look at the 3 different effects below:
In Image 3, I chose a Hard Light, 45 pixels wide. In image four, I took Image 3, and did the Stroke option again, this time making the Hard Light border 25 pixels wide, so I now have a double bordered effect. On Image 5, I used a Normal blend mode, but changed the border color to a medium gray, and changed the opacity to 50%.
Creating a Border Selection
For most of the techniques used to create a border, you will need to start off with the part you want to turn into a border selected, so I’m going to discuss briefly how to create a border selection. The easiest way to do this, in PSE, is to use the Select All tool, as you did before, and then choose Select>Modify>Border. You can make the border as wide as you like. I am making my borders pretty wide for this tutorial, so they are easy for you to see, but change yours to suit your own photos and tastes.
Using Brushes to Create Borders
If you have not yet explored what you can do with the brush tool, you really should! Playing around with this tool can be loads of fun, especially since you can download new brushes online, and even create your own custom brushes! Moreover, it gives you an easy way to create a border.
Once you have created your border selection, choose a color you like, and a brush that has a lot of texture. For now, we will leave the brush settings at the default settings, but changing them around can be fun too. In this example, I chose a “Charcoal” brush, and used a bright blue (again, easy to see). Paint around the edges, and try to stay within your selection, but also try not to be too neat.
Thanks to the border selection, you don’t have to worry about coloring outside the lines. Make sure that you don’t paint over the same place too many times, so that the texture of the brush will show through.
Using Texture to Create Borders
Another thing that you can download on the internet is patterns that you can import into PSE as textures. There are some great textures at ImageAfter.com. Once you have a pattern you’d like to use, create a texture by opening the image in PSE, and selecting Edit>Define Pattern. Once you have done this, create the border selection as you did before, then select the paint can tool, and choose Fill: Pattern. The pattern you just defined should be available in the list, all you need to do is make sure it’s selected. To make things easier, make a new layer by choosing Layer>New>Layer. Then just use the paint bucket tool to fill the selection in with the pattern.
Image 7