Borders and frames

[J.davis]

How do you make custom borders/frames for photos in Elements - 7 specifically. I can use layers and add a border, but this is very limited and I would like to do more. The books I have read are very general in their help on this topic.

[Analog6]

I use the borders tool in FastStone Image Viewer - it has lots of options and is easy to use. FSIV is a free downloadable file viewer that lets you view RAW files full screen, do basic edits, and, most useful to me, do batch conversions, with resizing, framing and adding watermark all in one action.

[davwhite]

Hi John, in Elements 6 and I'm sure it would be the same for7 , you go to Image>resize>Canvas . Select pixels and put a size in both boxes. You size would depend on what you are going to do in the width, writing for example. Then select the colour, white, black or gray.
You can do a small black border of, say, 5 pixels, save it and then go back and do a 100 pixel white border for a different effect.

[bigbikes]

John, Im not sure about Elements, but I use this program http://www.bordermaker.nl/en/home.html it may help you a bit.

Cheers

[J.davis]

Thanks all, I have just got 'cs for dummies' and it helped a lot. I now have a selection of borders that I have made and they run in 'actions'. Not elements, but close enough.

[ricktas]

just some additional advice. Remember the border takes up pixel-size. So if you are entering a photo into a competition (on AP or elsewhere), you need to look at the final pixel size of your photo after you have added your border.

Borders can compliment a photo, but they can also ruin a good photo. If when the viewer first sees the photo, the first impression is "oh, look at that border/frame", you have failed.

[NikonNellie]

Borders can compliment a photo, but they can also ruin a good photo. If when the viewer first sees the photo, the first impression is "oh, look at that border/frame", you have failed.

Good point Rick. I have been putting a border on most of my photos but I have never actually thought whether it distracts from the photo.

[J.davis]

At our 'camera club', it was noted that if you spent time enhancing a photo, why not present it in a frame, to compliment and complete the pic.

[[ kane ]]

Off topic

I use an addon called 'Mogrify' (http://timothyarmes.com/lr2mogrify.php) this lets me automatically add my borders and logo, as well as a host of other things.

It's worth looking into.

I get asked a few times a week about it, so feel free to sticky this