Photoshop Tutorial: Spotted frame
Jump to: [part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [part 4]
Creating a frame around your photos breaks the monotony. If you don't plan on printing them, then diplay them with some style. If you play around with some of the settings and filters in this tutorial, things could get rather interesting. But this will show you the basics, what you do next is up to you.

Level » Beginner
Parts » 4
Time » 10min

 Part 1
Create a new image with the following settings:

File -> New
Width: 400px
Height: 400px
Resolution: 72 px/in
Mode: RGB
Contents: Background Color


 Part 2

Fill in the background with what ever color you want your frame to be using the Fill tool.

Next, create a new channel and create your shape using the Rectangular tool, (you may choose to use the Ellipse or Polygon). The shape you create should be filled in white. Hold down the shift key to keep the shape as a perfect square or perfect circle.

Now it is time to add the style to our frame.

Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur (I use 4px here).

Filter -> Pixelate -> Color Halftone... (I keep everything at the default settings).


 Part 3

Now it is time to go back into the Layers tab and add the photo that you want to have framed. Click on the Layers tab and then select the background layer.

Open up the photo as another image on your Photoshop desktop and select everything.

Select -> All

Next we will Copy and Paste it into our new image with the frame.

Edit -> Copy; (select our new image with frame) Edit -> Paste.

Now our photo should be on its own layer in our image with the frame.


 Part 4
The last thing involved is adding our frame to our photo.

Go back into the Channels tab and select the Channel that we made in the beinning of this tutorial. Once it is selected, load it as a selection.

Select -> Load Selection... (you can keep all the defaults and click OK).

Now go back to your Layers tab and select the layer with your photo. You should still see the selection marquee. Select the inverse of the selection.

Select -> Inverse

And clear away the edges.

Edit -> Clear

What you have left is a nicely framed photo.