Tutorial 2: Simple Photo Border Style

This tutorial is on how to add a quick and easy and PERFECT border to your digi photos. And then I will show you how to make it EVEN EASIER each time after the first one! HOLY COW! It will be amazing! LOL. This tutorial should work with all versions of Photoshop, and PS Elements with a bit of a difference in where some options are located. I am going to do the PSE stuff from memory (BAD idea, Melissa...) so if anyone noticed anything wrong PLEASE let me know!

OK! To add a PERFECT border to your photo, no matter what size, shape, or color your photo is:

1. First, make sure your photo is not the background layer. To do this - look in your layers palette and if the layer is named 'background', simply double click on the layer and name it 'photo'.

2. Select your photo layer (make sure it is highlighted in the layers palette). In Photoshop, and PSE4: click on the little 'f' at the bottom of the layers palette, to bring up the Styles menu, and click on 'Stroke'. In PSE2: Go to Edit > Stroke. (I am not sure which way you do it with PSE3, sorry!)

3. A red line should appear around your photo.

4. In the stroke dialogue box, change the color of the stroke from red to white (or whatever color you want, but white is the classic photo border), by clicking on the red box and choosing white from the color palette.

5. Change the Position of the stroke from "Outside" to "Inside" - this will make your stroke clean and crisp. (I am not sure if this option is available with PSE2. So you might have to downsize your photo a tiny bit here to be able to see the stroke if your photo is filling the whole canvas).

6. Change the size of your stroke to taste - depending on the resolution of your photo, you might go anywhere from 8 to 20. Now click on OK. You should have a PERFECT white border around your photo! Just like the borders on your printed photos!

To make this EVEN EASIER in the future (you mean it can be easier??)
a. Make sure your photo is still selected and go back to the Style menu (the little 'f'), and back to Stroke.

b. Click on "New Style" (this might be "Save Style" or something of that nature in older versions of PS). Give the style a name of "White Photo Border" and click on OK. Then click on OK to exit the layers palette.

c. Open a NEW photo, and make sure it is not the background layer (See step 1 above).

d. Find your Styles palette (this is in a different place in different versions - may also be called "Layer Styles" or "Styles and Effects"). In ANY case, you can find it by going to Window > Styles (or Layer Styles, or Styles and Effects) and you should be able to find it. It may also often be found behind the "Colors" or "Swatches" palettes.

e. Scroll to the bottom of your Styles palette and find the box that looks like a grey box with a white border around it - if you hold your mouse over top of it the name "White Photo Border" should appear. Click on this box and VOILA! Another perfect photo border! (Assuming your photos are the same resolution, the border will be the perfect size!)

So...I hope that was as easy as I made it sound like it was going to be! LOL Please leave me some feedback...I would love to hear what you think!

Tutorial 1: Selective Color on your Photos

This tutorial is for making a photo black and white with little bits of color showing through. Remember to work on a COPY of your photo in case you want to use the original again.

1. Open your color photo and duplicate the layer (Right click on the layer in the layers palette and choose duplicate, or press Ctrl-J with the layer selected.)

2. Choose the top layer. We need to remove the color. There are MANY ways to do this, and this is just ONE option! (Maybe that can be whole other tutorial!)
PHOTOSHOP: Choose Image > Adjustments > Desaturate
PS ELEMENTS: Choose Enhance > Adjust Color > Remove Color

3. Now we need to choose the areas where the color will show through. Everyone can use the Elements method, but if you have Photoshop you can also use another, less destructive, method.

PHOTOSHOP: With the top layer selected, click on the layer mask button (in the layers pallette, the button that lookd like a circle inside of a square). This will create a layer mask for this layer. Make sure the layer mask is selected (look for the outline around the thumbnail), and fill the mask with black - your top layer will SEEM to disapper. DONT WORRY!! Now, choose your brush tool and make sure you are painting with white. With the layer mask still selected, paint where you want the black and white to show up again. If you make a mistake, just paint with a black brush. The fantastic thing about this method is the flexibility!! (TIP: Experiment with a GREY brush!!)

PS ELEMENTS: This method is easier, but not as flexible as the photoshop method above. Simply choose your eraser tool and erase the black and white areas that you want to be color! Your color layer will now show through! (See also the PS Elements workaround below for yet another method!).

** TIP: Y ou can always reverse the layers (ie. put the color layer on top and erase it to show the b/w layer).

PS Elements 'workaround'
Because Elements does not have layer masks, you dont have the flexibility of a layer mask without some extra work! But if you want to try, here is what you can do. (This will give you the ability to show/erase/show/erase the visible part of your color photo without "losing" any of the actual photo.

• start the same, with your two photo layers, 1 color, 1 BW.
• create a new layer IN BETWEEN them, then hide your top layer
• on the new blank layer, get out your paintbrush and paint (in general) where you want the top layer to show. (this might look/sound weird, but just stick with me here). It doesnt matter what color you use.
  
• make the top layer visible again, select it, and push Ctrl-G to Group the layer with the brushed layer below it.
  
• you can now select the brushed layer again, and continue to use the brush and eraser on it to get it JUST RIGHT!!!

So that is tutorial #1! If you have any comments or questions, please leave me a note! :)

A new blog & resource

I realized that I have written a few tutorials in the last little while, and now the place where I had posted them is shutting down. I was going to put them on my website, but I dont think they will "fit", so I thought that I would start a new blog for them! SOMEONE might want to use them! LOL

If you have any requests, or any questions about the tutorials that I post, just post a comment or send me an email. I will do my best to accomodate. I am not going to promise how often I will post a new tutorial...just sorta whenever I feel like it and find time! All the tutorials will be for Adobe Photoshop, with some special notes for PS Elements users. And maybe some special request tutorials every once in a while too.

Alright then! Let's go! :)