Testing frames for photos

wxwax

I'm thinking maybe the idea of framing the photo isn't such a bad one. Lots of folks here do it, and it sets off their pics nicely.

I tried a white background with a drop shadow, wasn't thrilled. So this is outerglow, three ways. What other styles do y'all like?

wxwax

And a couple more options. Obviously, not straying from black and white. I'm trying to mimic the white matte and black frame style of actual posters.

wxwax

Hmm, maybe the canvas isn't big enough? I remember someone here posting that they use a 10% addition for canvas size. Here's another version.

wxwax

Shakey

This one is my choice.

wxwax

wxwax

Shakey wrote:

This one is my choice.

Thanks Shakey. I think I agree with you.

wxwax

Different shot, same treatment that Shakey and I like.

fish

I did it once or twice and while I think it looks nice, personally, I think it's a lot of work for little benefit.

wxwax

True. I wonder if there's a way to automate (create an Action) in Photoshop so that the whole thing is done with a keystroke? I think the tricky bit would be getting Photoshop to calculate an automatic 5% increase in the canvas size.

hutchman

Waxy,

I have also tried some framing and have been less than overwhelmed with the results. I think if you came up with a template you liked, you could save it as a Photo Shop document and copy your finished image into the template.

Think it should work.

Hutch

wxwax

Hutch, that's a good idea. Have to figure out how to easily resize it. But great concept!

hutchman

You should be able to resize any layer that is selected or PS document by using "Control T" for the free transform tool. You have to be careful to keep the document in perspective, but it is quick eazy tool


Hutch

wxwax

Good one, I never thought about using Free Transform like that. Next step, figure out the ratio between the black and the white, since the black was done as an outer glow, and has no measurements.

hutchman

Waxy,

You can do that with another feature in the blending menu called "Strain" (I think). It will outline your image and does have a size feature.

Hutch

It's not Strain, it is Stroke. I have CRS bad!

Hutch

pathfinder

wxwax wrote:

True. I wonder if there's a way to automate (create an Action) in Photoshop so that the whole thing is done with a keystroke? I think the tricky bit would be getting Photoshop to calculate an automatic 5% increase in the canvas size.

I think since the effect is 360 degrees that you might be able to record an action. I have thought about an action for drop shadows, but I try to arrange the drop shadow direction to match the current lighting direction in the image and I cannot figure how to automate that at all.

On second thought Sid, you can record an action to enlarge the canvas by 5 or 10% easily Go to "Image" "Canvas Size" and change the width and height boxes to percent - leave the relative box checked and increase the percent by 5 or 10% - Check the white color box.
This is an action that can be recorded and used inside other actions. I think this will work - but a 10% increase in canvas border size will give different border widths on rectangles but not squares.

wxwax

hutchman wrote:

Waxy,

You can do that with another feature in the blending menu called "Strain" (I think). It will outline your image and does have a size feature.

Hutch

It's not Strain, it is Stroke. I have CRS bad!

Hutch

Stroke, ah yes, I know it well. Ahem. Thanks, I'll try my hand at it.

wxwax

pathfinder wrote:

I think since the effect is 360 degrees that you might be able to record an action. I have thought about an action for drop shadows, but I try to arrange the drop shadow direction to match the current lighting direction in the image and I cannot figure how to automate that at all.

On second thought Sid, you can record an action to enlarge the canvas by 5 or 10% easily Go to "Image" "Canvas Size" and change the width and height boxes to percent - leave the relative box checked and increase the percent by 5 or 10% - Check the white color box.
This is an action that can be recorded and used inside other actions. I think this will work - but a 10% increase in canvas border size will give different border widths on rectangles but not squares.

Good catch, I missed that. Egg-cellent.

cletus

pathfinder wrote:

I think since the effect is 360 degrees that you might be able to record an action. I have thought about an action for drop shadows, but I try to arrange the drop shadow direction to match the current lighting direction in the image and I cannot figure how to automate that at all.

If you're using Layer Styles to create the drop shadow you can turn on the dialog box for the Set Layer Styles step:



With this turned on, every time you run the action it will pull up the drop shadow layer style dialog. It should remember everything that you set when you record the action, but you can go back and tweak things when you run the action.

Sorry if this wasn't what you had in mind.

wxwax

pathfinder wrote:

On second thought Sid, you can record an action to enlarge the canvas by 5 or 10% easily Go to "Image" "Canvas Size" and change the width and height boxes to percent - leave the reletive box checked and increase the percent by 5 or 10% - Check the white color box.
This is an action that can be recorded and used inside other actions. I think this will work - but a 10% increase in canvas border size will give different border widths on rectangles but not squares.

Thanks Path'. Yes, I've seen that the border sizes don't match. I'll have to work that one out.

cletus

wxwax wrote:

Thanks Path'. Yes, I've seen that the border sizes don't match. I'll have to work that one out.

How 'bout this???

I usually resize my shots so that which ever dimension is larger (height for portrait, width for landscape) comes out to be 1500 pixels before I upload them to smugmug. Once the image is resized I could alter the canvas size using some fixed pixel value instead of a percent.

You could even add the re-size to your action. The only catch is the action has no way of knowing which dimension on the picture is larger, so I guess you would have to have two actions, one for potrait orientation and one for landscape

pathfinder

wxwax wrote:

Thanks Path'. Yes, I've seen that the border sizes don't match. I'll have to work that one out.

I'm ruminatin' on that one too - not sure how to fix that yet..... Must be a way somehow.

wxwax

cletus wrote:

How 'bout this???

I usually resize my shots so that which ever dimension is larger (height for portrait, width for landscape) comes out to be 1500 pixels before I upload them to smugmug. Once the image is resized I could alter the canvas size using some fixed pixel value instead of a percent.

You could even add the re-size to your action. The only catch is the action has no way of knowing which dimension on the picture is larger, so I guess you would have to have two actions, one for potrait orientation and one for landscape

Wild Thing, you make my head spin.

cletus

wxwax wrote:

Wild Thing, you make my head spin.

Sorry... I wrote that while in *engineer mode

*no train jokes please

tsiya

Trying To Follow This Thread
I don't have PHOTO SHOP, so it is sometimes difficult to follow things. With My JASC PAINT SHOP, borders and frames are an auto function, with almost unlimited style and color options. PHOTO SHOP is on My wish list, but to work with JASC, not replace it.

cletus

tsiya wrote:

I don't have PHOTO SHOP, so it is sometimes difficult to follow things. With My JASC PAINT SHOP, borders and frames are an auto function, with almost unlimited style and color options. PHOTO SHOP is on My wish list, but to work with JASC, not replace it.

Nice stuff. I like the one in the upper right hand corner. Simple but effective.

-Eric

cletus

Slide Mount Frame
This one still needs some work. The idea is to make the photo look like a slide mounted in a slide carrier:

tsiya

Something Else To Look At
Ladies and Gentlemen, I know I often come on like the original Redneck Wonder, but had to retire about 5 years before I was ready, those 70 hour weeks finally got ahead of Me. I learn something every time I log on here, but sometimes it seems like the common solution is to throw money at the damn problem. Don't work for the "Gubmint", does it? I just downloaded a freeware program from "Das Nederlands", called "2 pic". Has frame and border options galore.
I have little doubt that "PHOTO SHOP" is great, super, wonderful, but it is not all there is in the world of software, Oops!, they are a sponsor? Oh, well.
My two "dinky" little cameras are likely the ones I'm gonna be buried with Me ,' cause no "real pro" would be caught dead with them, but, "You dance with the girl You brung with You". Should, anyway. Lots of those girls are real steady in the long run, and good cookin' counts big time.
Again, never tried PHOTO SHOP, but from what I hear, it would not hurt to add a few things to it. It is a big world out there, more than a few smart programmers.
Don't put limits on it.
I don't have many pixels, but those I got, shine!
Y'all take care, tsiya

pathfinder

cletus wrote:

This one still needs some work. The idea is to make the photo look like a slide mounted in a slide carrier:

Did you make this one yourself, Cletus or did you find it in a program somewhere? I like it.

pathfinder

tsiya wrote:

Ladies and Gentlemen, I know I often come on like the original Redneck Wonder, but had to retire about 5 years before I was ready, those 70 hour weeks finally got ahead of Me. I learn something every time I log on here, but sometimes it seems like the common solution is to throw money at the damn problem. Don't work for the "Gubmint", does it? I just downloaded a freeware program from "Das Nederlands", called "2 pic". Has frame and border options galore.
I have little doubt that "PHOTO SHOP" is great, super, wonderful, but it is not all there is in the world of software, Oops!, they are a sponsor? Oh, well.
My two "dinky" little cameras are likely the ones I'm gonna be buried with Me ,' cause no "real pro" would be caught dead with them, but, "You dance with the girl You brung with You". Should, anyway. Lots of those girls are real steady in the long run, and good cookin' counts big time.
Again, never tried PHOTO SHOP, but from what I hear, it would not hurt to add a few things to it. It is a big world out there, more than a few smart programmers.
Don't put limits on it.
I don't have many pixels, but those I got, shine!
Y'all take care, tsiya

The name of this thread IS Photoshop Shenanigans - and it is a forum for those of us who use PS to chat about our successes and failures. There are any number of other image editing programs from Picture Window Pro, to Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop Elements ( frequently comes with a new digital camera as a come on ) GIMP and others - ALL ARE WELCOME to discuss and debate here.

Many of us have come to PhotoShop over the years after using other software because PS is generally recognized as the most powerful and capable image editing software program with the most plug ins. It IS expensive, but should last almost forever ( except for upgrades of course) And it will outlast many of the cameras people are using today. The Linux/Unix camp will have to defend themselves as I know little about that - But Seamaiden does and can. But if you have software that you are so happy with why holler about people who use other software?

If you have pictures that you are proud of we would be delighted to look at them in our picture forums. Thank you.

rutt

tsiya wrote:

Ladies and Gentlemen, I know I often come on like the original Redneck Wonder, but had to retire about 5 years before I was ready, those 70 hour weeks finally got ahead of Me. I learn something every time I log on here, but sometimes it seems like the common solution is to throw money at the damn problem. Don't work for the "Gubmint", does it? I just downloaded a freeware program from "Das Nederlands", called "2 pic". Has frame and border options galore.
I have little doubt that "PHOTO SHOP" is great, super, wonderful, but it is not all there is in the world of software, Oops!, they are a sponsor? Oh, well.
My two "dinky" little cameras are likely the ones I'm gonna be buried with Me ,' cause no "real pro" would be caught dead with them, but, "You dance with the girl You brung with You". Should, anyway. Lots of those girls are real steady in the long run, and good cookin' counts big time.
Again, never tried PHOTO SHOP, but from what I hear, it would not hurt to add a few things to it. It is a big world out there, more than a few smart programmers.
Don't put limits on it.
I don't have many pixels, but those I got, shine!
Y'all take care, tsiya

Photoshop is expensive, but you don't have to pay full price. You can get a modern version for a lot less than full price. Here's how. Buy any old version full version and then buy an upgrade. If you dig around on ebay, you can buy a very old full version for maybe $70. Search ebay for "photoshop full version". An upgrade to the latest version is about $150, but you can get an upgrade to version 7, the last version for less than $100 on ebay. For most purposes, this will be great. Version 6 will also be fine and perhaps the upgrade can be found cheaper. In short, you don't have to shell out >$600. You can get on board (perfiectly legally) for a little more than $200.

This is still a lot of money for a computer program. The gimp, for example is free. I used it a lot because I'm Linux free software geek. But ultimately, it's limiting. So if you aspire to be make the best possible images you can, eventually you'll find that it holds you back. I think this is true of everything other than photoshop. I wish this weren't true, but I'm afraid it is. The biggest single advantage of PS is that it's the Lingua Franca of iamge processing programs. Lots of what we do is theory and not specific to any particular program. But since we all use PS, we can use a lot of common language and explanations of process.

Just try googling for "photoshop tips" vs "2 pic tips". Or look on Amazon books for "Photoshop" vs "2 Pic" (or the GIMP, for that matter.

If you really need a free image processing program, I think the GIMP is good. If your computer is realtively new, you might actually have Phtotoshop Elements and not know it. Photoshop LE version 5 has been given away with lots of cameras and printers over the years and I bet you can get it very inexpensively on ebay (but beware this is not really Photoshop and can't be upgraded to it.)