Pacific Northwest Nature Photographers Tips, Tricks, Techniques & Tutorials
Photoshop Frames for web display
by Eric Hahl
Here is how I created the PS frames you’ve been seeing on my photos lately. Lets first take a look at what was created and why. I first created a workspace of 12x16” so I could cutout a 8”x10” rectangle for the photo and leave 2” on each side for a nice matte.
The layers sequence I used is as follows (from top down),
Black frame layer (the outmost frame)
signature layer (a place for my signature/photo title)
matte texture layer (a texture for the matte)
white matte layer (the matte)
photo layer (the layer I put my photo on)
and background (just what it is, the background)
The matte
On the “white matte” layer, I cut out an 8”x10” rectangle using guidelines. Make sure “snap to guides is on”
As shown below, I inserted some guides at specific points for my matte cutout, bevel, and frame thickness. In this example the cutout is 8”x10” with a 1/8” bevel. I then made sure “snap to guides” was selected and created a selection as shown below. Then I deleted the contents of that selection.
Once the cutout was made I needed to create a bevel look. I created the look in 4 steps, one for each side. I made a “snap to” selection for each side as shown below and filled them in with different shades of gray for each bevel. Note how the corners are at 45 degrees.
Texturing the matte
Once the bevel was made I created a duplicate of the matte layer, added a texture to it by selecting “filter, texture, texturizer”, I then applied the texture I wanted and changed the layers opacity to something between 50 and 85% and named that layer “texture layer”.
The outer frame
To create the black frame I used the same guideline/snap to technique as the cutout. I first created a selection for the large part of the frame as shown below (frame selection 1) and applied a black/transparent gradient in the desired direction.
This method will get you really close to the correct colors in most situations. Sometimes, if there is no real white, like a sunset or a dark forest scene, using the white eyedropper on the lightest spot will make your colors all weird. Sometimes the black eyedropper alone will be enough to get you where you want to be. There are other methods and a continuation of this method to exactly get rid of any color cast. That’ll be another tutorial though.
Once the 4 main sections were complete I created a secondary selection using “guides and snap to” as shown in frame selection 2 above. I then filled in this selection with a gradient as well to give the frame a 3d type look.
The final steps
I created multiple sizes of this frame like 8x10, 8x12, etc. I then add the photo I want to display. And resize the whole thing to 640 pixels on the long side while maintaining the layers. I then select my photo layer and do the final Unsharp mask. Once that is complete I flatten the image and save a jpeg for web display.
That’s all there is to it. Have fun playing.
Eric