FINAL: Framing Your Artwork and Photos

This tutorial will show you how to make a photo frame for your artwork or photos, which displays like the real thing but is created using PhotoShop.

Layers, Layer Styles, and use of the Rectangular Marquee Tool are pretty much the techniques involved in making the Digital Frame. It is simple to make and adds a nice finished look to any PhotoShop project. As I go through the steps to recreate, I will use Keyboard Shortcuts as much as possible. Sorry for the Mac users, I am using a PC. The more I use them, the easier it is to remember them. Writing them into this tutorial helps to remember them also.

First thing is to choose an image you want to frame. Open the image.
Set the Foreground/Background colors to Default (D).
Make sure the Layers palette is showing (Windows – Layers)
Select the entire image (Control A)
Cut the selection from the background layer (Shift – Control J) which puts the selection on its own new layer. (Just like we did in project 7 with the layer masks.).
Rename the new layer by double clicking the new layer in the Layers Palette. Type in a name. Click Enter. Name it whatever you want. I chose Sensation, which is the name of the image.
Select from the Menu - Image – Canvas Size
Put a Check in the Relative checkbox
Select White in the Canvas Extension Color
Enter values of 4 inches for the Width and Height (Make sure preferences are set to inches, not pixels or percent)
Click OK
4 inches of white canvas are now added to the image.

Create another layer. Make sure the new layer is below the first layer (Sensation).
A trick to automatically position the new layer below previous layers is to Press and hold the Control key (Command for Mac) and click on the Create a New layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.
Rename the new layer - Frame.
Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool(M)
Check in the Layers palette to make sure you are working on the new layer Frame.
Draw a rectangle that is a couple of inches larger than your image. This will be the edge of your frame. Remember the space bar trick. It comes in handy to center the rectangle.
Press D and then X to set the Foreground Color to White in the Tools palette.
Press Alt-Backspace to fill the selection with white. I believe its Option-Delete on a Mac
Deselect All (Control D)
Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see anything yet. You are on the right track.
Next you will add an edge to the frame.
Still working in the Frame Layer, select Add a Layer Style (the fx next to the chain link icon) from the bottom of the Layers palette. Choose Stroke
In the Stroke popup box:
Set the Size to 7 pixels, Position to Inside (Important to set to INSIDE) Opacity to 100%.
The Fill Type is set to Color. Click on the color swatch and choose Black.
If you are using 300 ppi images you might want to play around with the Size setting and bump it up to your liking.
Click OK
You should now have a nice black crisp looking edge.
Keep the Frame layer selected.
To add inside depth to the frame select Add a Layer Style from the bottom of the layer palette. Choose Inner Shadow.
In the Inner Shadow popup box:
Set the Blend Mode to Multiply, Opacity to 50%, Angle to 131,
Uncheck Use Global Light checkbox
Distance 13 px, Choke 0 px, Size 3 px
If you are using high resolution images, you might want to increase the Distance and Size.
Click OK

You will now add a matt to the frame.
Create a new layer by pressing Control and clicking on the Create a New layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.
Rename the new layer - Matt
Move the layer – Matt, above the Frame layer and below your Image Layer. (See Diagram below)
With the layer Matt selected, select the Rectangular Marquee Tool( M)
Draw a rectangle that is slightly larger than the image.
Press D and then X to set the Foreground Color to White
Press Alt-Backspace to fill the selection with white. Option-Delete on a Mac
Deselect All (Control D)
Select Add a Layer Style from the bottom of the layer palette. Choose Inner Glow.
In the Inner Glow popup box:
Set the Blend Mode to Normal, Opacity to 20%, Noise to 0%
Click on the color swatch and select Black
Click OK. Click OK again.

Select the Frame layer in the Layers palette.
To add outer depth to the frame and make it pop out, select Add a Layer Style from the bottom of the Layer palette. Choose Drop Shadow.
In the Drop Shadow popup box:
Set the Blend Mode to Multiply, Opacity to 60%, Angle to 120,
Uncheck the Use Global Light,
Distance 5 px, Spread 0%, Size 9 px
Click OK

To add more contrast between the frame and the background you can choose a different colored background instead of white.
Select the Background layer. If the Background layer is locked and you can’t unlock it Put your curser over the layer and holding down the left click of the mouse, drag the Background layer over the Create a New layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. A background copy layer is created. Choose the background copy layer and add change the background color. Then hide the background layer by turning off the eyeball.
Click on the Foreground color box from the Tools palette. Choose a light gray or other complimentary color from the Color Picker.
Press Alt-Backspace to fill the Background layer with the new selected color. (Option-Delete on a Mac).

Voila, your image is ready to hang in any digital gallery.

For variety you can add more than 1 matt for a double matt finish, change the frame or matt from white to another color or play with the Size, Opacity, and Distance to give your frame a different look and feel.

I chose this project because it is a good exercise working with layers, renaming and moving layers and adding layer styles. It is also a good exercise using keyboard shortcuts. The end result is a simple, nice complimentary frame that can be added to any image in any digital gallery. It is something I hope my classmates enjoy and can use themselves.

Project 7: Layer Masks

This was the funnest, yes a new word, the funnest project yet! I thoroughly enjoyed working with masks. I played around with masks before without any understanding or direction and never knew how powerful and useful they are. The teacher’s instructions and tutorial on You Tube was right on the money and very helpful. Thank you. Masks open up a whole new world of creativity and excitement.

My procrastination was what to use for pictures. We were instructed to use photos with tonal range, good shadows and midtones. Yesterday, as I was looking through photos I had taken I spied one of a plant taken on a rainy day and seeing as yesterday was Earth Day, I found this to be quite appropriate. I finished it today, Thursday, and we are receiving the first rain of the year in the Fairbanks area. How cool is that!

The steps to recreate Earth Day

1. Select a photo and make a copy. Hide the original.
2. From the Menu choose Select – Color Range – Shadows. Click OK
3. Click Control J to make a new layer. Rename the layer Shadows
4. Hide the background layer
5. Bring up the Fill Box and select Black and check the Preserve Transparency checkbox. Click OK
6. Hide the Shadows layer.
7. Turn back on the background layer and Select the background layer.
8. From the Menu choose Select – Color Range - Midtones. Click OK
9. Click Control J to make a new layer. Rename the layer Midtones
10. Hide the background layer
11. Bring up the Fill Box and select 50% Gray and check the Preserve Transparency checkbox. Click OK
12. Making sure the background layer is Hidden, turn back on the Shadows and Midtones layer. The Midtones layer is to be above the Shadows layer. Select both layers and from the Menu choose Layers – Merge Layers. Rename the merged layers Tonal Mask.
13. Create a new layer. Rename the new layer Fill layer. Fill the new layer with White and uncheck the Preserve Transparency checkbox. Click OK.
14. Select the Text tool and create a text box that fills the entire layer. Type Earth Day, using Tekton Pro font, size 16, green font over and over to make a line of text. Copy and paste to fill entire text box with text.
15. Add a layer mask from the bottom of the palette to the Text layer.
16. Click on the Tonal Mask layer to select it. Click Control A to select everything from the Tonal mask layer. Choose Edit – Copy from the Menu.
17. Hold down the Alt key and click on the new layer mask in the Text layer. Paste the Tonal layer into the new layer mask.
Invert the image by choosing from the Menu – Image - Adjustments – Invert.
18. Create a new layer. Fill the new layer with Green color. Move the layer next to the hidden background layer and below the other layers.
19. Create a duplicate Tonal Mask Layer and place it above the original Tonal Mask layer. This seems to add depth between the green fill layer and the original tonal mask layer.
20. Create two new layers. With the Text Tool write Earth in one layer and Day in the other layer, using Tekton Pro font, size 300, Bold, green font. Using the Move tool place the words Earth Day into the image. I also used the eraser tool to erase some of the water beads next to the plant. I was really surprised and pleased with the outcome of the final result. At first I had the words Earth Day scrolling over the whole picture. I played with the Invert command and liked this result better. I originally used a white background, but played around and ended up using a green background. I thought about erasing all the water spots, but after trying this I decided to leave them as it adds to the dimension of the overall image.

The steps to recreate Sensation

I used most of the same steps as above to recreate the second image, Sensation. I left out Steps 14 and 15, which was creating a text background. Instead I played with the gradients and played some more with the gradients. The Gradients are fun. Wasting time, I created a new layer and found a gradient concoction I liked. I then Flipped Horizontally the Tonal Mask and placed it on the left portion of the art board and moved it upwards. I created a new layer and filled it with Red and placed it below the Gradient layer. I lowered the Opacity to 35%, giving the Gradient a richer feel to it. I tried not to make it to vibrant because with the palm frond and the shape of the gradient, there is a lot of activity going on in a small space. I was trying to compliment two different kinds of movement in a congested area keeping it together. I don’t have any idea where the word Sensation came from, but I liked it. I created a new text layer and using a font called African, size 48, blue font, wrote Sensation. Using the Move tool I placed the word so the S would align up with the gradient arrows, the V shape. I had to create a copy of the Gradient Fill Layer and place above the original in order to align up the V shape towards the bottom portion of the art board. By placing the Gradient Fill Layer so low it left a blank area and that is how I corrected it. Kind of tacky, but hey, it worked. Again, I was really pleased with the end result and had so much fun with both of these projects. I am definitely going to continue playing and learning different ways and techniques of layer masks with Photoshop. Fun, Fun, Fun!!!

Project 6: Photo Stitching and Text Application

Click on the pictures to view a larger version.

First thing I did was copy, resize the photos and change the resolution from 300 to 72 dpi for displaying on the internet.

I made a new image that is 25 inches long and 5 inches in height. I selected the Left Anchor Arrow on the Image canvas size to align all photos going in one direction and kept the canvas size the same as the new image size. Allowing extra space in the width or height makes it easier to move the photos up and down if the alignment isn’t just so. You can crop the canvas as one single picture when you’re completed stitching all photos together. I also found that if the width is not long enough you can go back to Image – Canvas Size and add extra space to the height. It then adds the extra space to the overall canvas without disrupting any work that is already established.

As I opened and used the move tool to move the photos to the new canvas I changed the layer names to 1, 2, 3, etc. I find this helpful if I were to use many photos. Some sort of layering logic necessary for sanity purposes.

I then zoomed in on the first two photos to the left. The next step was to lower the Opacity on the second photo from the left and align with the first photo. I repeated this step with each additional photo added, moving toward the right until all the objects in the photos were aligned.

Sometimes I switched the stacking order of the layers if I had problems with alignment. What I found useful was the Free Transform Tool. This allowed stretching, rotating, aligning a photo all in one. I liked this better than the Scale or Rotate Tools as it allows total freedom to manipulate without having to change from one Transform tool to another. Another useful thing to do was to lock layers as I went. This was helpful as I used the Edit - Step Backwards or Undo option frequently and found myself stepping back to far and undoing too much. No consideration was made that I would need to align poles and telephone wires when taking these photos, making alignment somewhat of a challenge. Another issue was blending the sky together because of the different shades of blue grey. I used the Polygonal Lasso Tool to select portions of the photos and then selected a color of the sky with the Color Picker Tool and then used Edit – Fill – Foreground Color and played with the opacity to blend the sky together. I used this for shading also in blending in the snow banks. I also used layer adjustments to Darken and Lighten portions. I used the Clone Stamp Tool to blend and next to the telephone wires. I also used the Blend Tool on the sky. Time for the Text. I made 2 layers added the text and put a drop shadow behind them. Saying ok, enough is enough, I flattened the photos, added a 3 pixel dark blue border and called it panorama. Altogether there are 6 photos used to make this panorama photo. I have another one I am working on and hopefully will upload it shortly. Panoramas are fun!

Project 5: Focus and Filters

The Mission: Take an original photo and come up with 3 additional photos. We are to have a plan in mind and we are to use filters and focus.

What is my project? : As I look around to figure out what I want to do, I see this bookshelf filled with books and a large plant draping over from the top of the shelf. I love this plant and think it is so beautiful. I wonder to myself how the plant would look if it stood out more from the books. I’m really daydreaming at this point and distracting myself from other work that needs to be done. That is why the plant hangs in front of the books. It is such a great distraction! Then it hits me, I will take a picture and use this photo for the project.

The Results: This is the original photo. The room is not usually this light as in the picture. It gives off a deceiving look. Oh well. First thing first, the picture is crooked so I used the Free Transform tool to turn the picture more upright and then I used the Crop tool to crop the outside of the photo and straighten it out.

I don’t really want to change the plant. You see I like the plant. It’s the background I want to change, because what’s in the background is too challenging now. For the first new picture I will call it Watercolor Bookshelf.

1. I made 2 copies of the background, 3 in all counting the original. Then I turned off the eyeball on one of the copies, just in case I totally screwed this up, to have as a backup.
2. The top background layer, I changed the name to plant. I used the Polygonal Lasso tool and outlined the plant and then discarded the rest of the photo. Next I used the Eraser tool to clean up the plant layer so that only the plant was left visible in the layer. Keeping this layer at the top of the layer stack, I turned off the eyeball to hide the plant.
3. On the second background layer I selected Filter from the top menu – Sketch – Photography. I set the Detail to 7 and the Darkness to 8. I then set the Opacity to 83% and the Fill to 76%. Oh yes, I turned back on the eyeball of the Original photo and locked it. By doing this some of the color showed through from the Filter selections.
4. I returned back to the second background layer and added another filter. Filter – Artistic – Watercolor. The Brush Detail set to 9, shadow Intensity set to 1, and the Texture set to 2. I then put on a layer style form the Drop down Menu in the Layers Palette and chose Pin Light.
5. Last I turned on the plant layer and viola my Watercolor Bookshelf. This was way fun and I was pleased with the results. Not knowing what the results would be made it all the more fun, experimenting with filters and such.

The second picture I call the Abstract Bookcase. I took the Watercolor Bookshelf and selected the plant layer only; making sure the plant layer was at the top of the layer stack. Then I chose the Create file or Adjustment Layer option from the bottom of the Layers Palette. I selected Inverse and this is the result.

The third picture I call Light Bookshelf. Taking the Watercolor Bookshelf I hid the plant layer. I then made another layer and added a radial gradient light to the background copy. I unhid the plant layer and this is the result. I like this picture a lot. There is more depth and contrast to this picture then the others, which is something I hadn’t planned and was pleased with the outcome. I kept my vision of making the plant the main focus also.

Project 4: Line Art

Steps to Recreate:

1. Make copy of original jpg
2. Double width of the canvas: Image – Canvas Size
Turn on Relative checkbox
Change Unit of Measure to Percent
Width Value 100
Click top left Anchor Box
Canvas Extension Color White
Click OK

3. Select ‘halfZak’ with the Rectangular Marquee tool to include an outline edge, Clone the selection and move to the right. Flip horizontally using Free Transformation Tool. Nudge selection into place using Arrow Keys. Use the Fade command to ensure proper alignment of the two halves of ‘halfZak’. Edit – Fade – Mode – Darken – OK.
4. Select Channels palette. Load the channel, using Ctrl Key, as a selection. Reverse selection, Select – Inverse, and make a new layer. Fill selection with Black. Select Background layer and fill with white.
5. Discard original Background layer. Lock Line Art and New Background Layer.
Creating a background layer of the original made it easier to line up the two copies and align them together, as the white background was not visible at the time, even though I specified it. I like to make background copies to use as back ups just incase I totally screw up.

Fills, Outlines, and Textures
I experimented with the Brushes Palette using various Presets. I was a little confused at first in how to bring up the Values Options for the selected Presets. In order to bring up the Scattering values for Scattering, I needed to Click on Scattering to view Options, DUH on my part! I selected Scattering and Color Dynamics. What a useful way to paint a picture and be able to blend colors. I created new layers and applied Pattern Fills to them. One layer is a Metal pattern scaled – 200 with Hard Light Opacity 30 %. The other layer is a Nebula pattern scaled – 150 with Darker Color Opacity 60%. I also Placed a jpg pattern I created in Illustrator and used that for the Line Art as displayed in two of the photos. This was a fun project and I found myself running out of time and wanting to play and experiment longer than I should. I definitely find this project useful in future projects.

Project 3: Layers, Cropping, Selections

This project was made using Layers. A real dollar was scanned and copied into Photoshop. I then made a copy of the dollar and turned off the visual eyeball in the Layers Pallete to hide it. A second photo, Joe, was opened in Photoshop. I used the Polygonal Lasso Tool to cut Joe’s head. I finished cutting his head using the Eraser Tool. I then used the Move Tool to move his head to the dollar, creating a new layer. The UAF Financial Services text was made using the Text Tool and applying the Layers Styles - Drop Shadow and Bevel and Emboss to the text. I replaced the L and B next to the numbers with Joe’s initials J and T. Joe’s signature replaces the Secretary of Treasury signature. Fairbanks, AK replaces Washington D.C. and This note is NOT legal tender replaces This note is LEGAL tender. Joe’s name and title replace the ONE DOLLAR. I had to Scale and Rotate Joe’s head to fit on Washington’s body. His photo was in color and the dollar was a money color. I cheated and used the Grey Scale to take out the color and blend together. The Eraser and Clone Stamp Tool were used for modifications. I then Flattened the layers and formatted the file into a jpg format. Joe was the Vice Chancellor for UAF Financial Services and is such a great guy, we voted him number one in our department, so it seemed appropriate to put him number one on the dollar bill.

Project 3: Selection Outline

1. After defining the document size, selection area, and background, I selected the Rulers option from the Window Menu Bar. I then went to Edit – Preferences to set the Ruler to Inches and Pixels. The next step was to create and place horizontal and vertical Guides to use as a basis for creating some sort of symmetry to the project
2. I saved the file and opened up the Layers palette to make sure I was not creating any layers.
3. I made 4 squares in each corner of the project using the Rectangular Marquee Tool, all the while keeping the shift key pressed. Then I drew the inside + using the Polygonal Lasso Tool. I used Right Click on the mouse to Fill the squares and + with the foreground color, a blue purple fill.
4. I made 4 triangles using the Polygonal Lasso Tool. I made the circle using the Elliptical Marquee Tool and centered as best as I could using the Spacebar trick, which is a cool trick I never knew about before. I used Right Click on the mouse to Fill the triangles and circle with the white background color.
5. I cleared the guides and saved my work in a Photoshop and jpg format.

A main obstacle I had with the project was how not to intentionally make layers. After I figured out how you can use the Marquee Selections and the Shift Key together to make it work, life was a little easier. The next issue was placement and symmetry. I’ve always liked using Guides and the Ruler was a big help. I stumbled a little in with the inside, the triangles and circle filling in with the background color until I chose Right click with the mouse. Right Click is another friend. The circle is almost a circle; it’s all how you look at it. I like my glass half full instead of half empty. Anyways, the placement of the circle in the pattern is enough to give one grief unless you press the Spacebar when making the circle and then you get movement to place the circle where you want it. Yeah for that! I thought this was a great assignment using selection tools on a single layer.