Creating sloppy borders

[Fidelis]

Just wondering if any of you PS whizzes know if you can create your own sloppy border templates for images? I know that you can buy software packages to do this but if I can create my own I'd like to do that. Anyone got any tutorials???

Thanks,

Emma.

[Emma]

You mean like edge masks? To make the borders looked painted or felt-tip marker or other weird effects?

There are TONS to download! Google graphic edge masks or photo edges or grayscale masks etc. I'll try to remember to post my fave sites for these: Schmoopy gave me an awesome one awhile back, and I know several other members have hundreds of these. But they're just jpg files that you load as a mask. A black center with a white border. The white acts like the layer mask, the black is see-through.

If you need help installing them, just ask us when you're ready.

They're also super easy to make. Just add a layer mask to your photo layer, then use a brush tool with white or black to paint the spots where you want the photo to show/not show. The artistry is what's hard about making your own.

Also, run filters on the mask once you have the edges sort of defined. The filters will give all sorts of cool effects!

Are you familiar with layer masks? I have several tutorials posted on using them in the Quick Class section, here's one
http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/university/layermasksPS.shtml

Have fun! And of course post back here if you have more questions on details!

[Fidelis]

Thanks for the info Emma, I'll check your suggestions out!!!

Thanks again,

Em.

[u.k. lady]

Hope this is okay for me to answer this .One of the ways to create your own sloppy borders is to create your own action.

[Emma]

Hope it's okay?! Wow, I don't mean to come off like a know-it-all...I'd LOVE to hear your method.

An action? Please, do tell! I have a million questions about actions, but I'll post that in another thread: for now I'd just love to see how you make edges with them.

Thanks so much!

[u.k. lady]

Emma, I soooooooooo did not think you are a know it all, you are certainly a whizz with photoshop .I know I normally moderate in the photography forum ,so I wanted to make sure I wasnt stepping on toes including Fidelis's.

[Emma]

Okay, Phew! When I said I'm just like Hermione on Casual Friday, I really meant it! I used to get embarrassed FOR her reading those books because she's so scarily like me! Minus the English accent of course... :p

I keep my toes under my computer desk, so they're always safe, but I have a tendency to go find others' toes on accident... :rolleyes:

Anyway, enough fun facts about me! So....

How's about those actions? Any advice on how to make those? Mayhaps a DSU Quick Class is in order? I'd LOVE to know. Any little action projects I can do makes them one step closer to being firmly in my toolbox: so far I've only made a few simple ones for rotating or resizing for the web, and don't use any others!

Thanks so much!

[u.k. lady]

I like Hermoine Emma , I am probably like her with an English accent, well I am sure that's what my SIL Fidelis thinks , Hey sis. :D

[Fidelis]

Your so funny Jacqui, LOL!!!! Ok these sloppy borders then, I really wanna get cracking with them, can't find any free downloads Emma, I searched through Google like you suggested but to no avail!!! Am I just gonna have to go buy some decent software?

Emma. :)

[Emma]

OKay, I only remember ONE site with grayscale masks to make borders:
http://graphicssoft.about.com/library/free/blfree_frames.htm
click the Download free masks in the box at top right to see many masks on a page, or click Page-by-page to see one at a time (tedious)

tutorial on using them
http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/photoshop/ht/apsmaskedges.htm
These are mostly symmetrical, swirly, more formal edges, has a bunch of hazy/cloudy, and just a few crazy.

Hey, and looky-here, the masks I downloaded had the name of the author on them, and that made finding her site really easy:
http://www.haylerscreations.com/masks.html
download in sets of 12. Has some really crazy sets

And I can't find any sites with those Google searches either, except the graphicssoft site posted above, so hopefully someone else will know some good searches or post a link to some sites.

[doris32]

Here's a great tutorial..
http://www.escrappers.com/framestextures.html

[Emma]

Okay, I just discovered a totally cool way to easily make these masks (of course, I didn't discover it, it's obviously been done before...)

Anyway! In Photoshop, click the Quick Mask Mode icon at the bottom of the Toolbox or type Q to enter Quick Mask Mode.
In Paintshop Pro go to Selections>Edit Selection or click the Edit Selection icon at the top of the Layers Palette.

Now get a black paintbrush, and start painting a border onto your photo. There will be a red overlay wherever you paint with black, and later that overlay will be the portions of the photo that show through! Use any tool that works on a grayscale image, like Paint bucket, brush, eraser, pencil, gradient, lots of filters, adjustements, etc. You can make a black rectangle over the photo (will be the red overlay color) and then run filters on it to get some cool edges. Use white to removed the red overlay. Have fun playing!

The type Q or the Edit Selection icon again to exit this mode. The red will be a selection now. Add a layer mask by clicking the icon in the layers palette. Or go to Layer>Add Mask> either Show All or Hide all

then the selection will mask off the edges of the image where you painted!

Check out those sites I posted previously to see what a mask should look like (b&w image) so you know where/how to paint. Play around and post any links here if you make a layout using the masks you make or download so we can see!

I'm hoping to do Jacqui's Actions Tutorial soon. Looks interesting! And Denis's tutorial is another way to do it. The point is to get a "rectangle with funky edges" shaped selected to mask the photo or just delete the edges without a mask. Have fun!

[u.k. lady]

You are clever Emma, tell me if this works as an action .I dont think you can use it because your painting the mask but I could be wrong ,I dont have time try it my self right now so if you get a chance let me know

thanks Jacqui :D

[Betsy]

I have no idea how to make masks or actions.

I made myself a ton of brushes, and I can use them to cut away edges of papers and photos. I just scanned a bunch of stuff (Like handmade papers, and acrylic paint strokes) and made brushes. I like that I made them, so I can use them without worrying about who to credit anytime I submit or use it for my design team stuff. Also, I made what I knew I needed, so I have awhat I want. (Did that make any sense? :p ;) )

Lots of paint examples in my gallery, click in my sig to see! :D

[forest]

The best thing I have found for sloppy bodrders is Nitorix BorderIT. (www.nitorix.com)

It does true full frame sloppy borders on any size image. It will also batch process an entire folder of images.

I found these scripts through the www.opensourcephoto.net forum. Which by the way is a great community of photographers.

forest

[Lauren]

Well Im sure you can create an action out of just about any thing you do in photoshop - but one way you could do a quick sloppy border - create a new layer - use brushes etc to scribble away till you get a good look - - use various opacities - then when you are happy - you can select and move to your picture layer and delete - for future use - save the top layer as a png file to apply to other pictures -
Of course with photoshop there are as many different methods of applying a task as there are users -
You could save these files as mask files if you like - but its so easy just to save the scribble layer as a psd file and drag it on to whatever image you like

[Emma]

I just updated the Borders tutorial with PSE notes here:
http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/university/tutorials/ps_borders.shtml

basically it's what Lauren said, making a top layer, grunging the borders (in this case it's a filter), and save the top layer for future use.

ALSO, PSE 3 has some cool custom shapes called Crop Frames that are premade grungy borders to use in the same way as the black shape created in the tutorial. Check it out!

Cool tutorial/site, forest. Haven't heard of that one before! tfs

[crazycowgirl]

OK I went and got me the masks from haylerscreations.com but they are in jpg. how do I make them a mask???? Is there a tut somewhere for that?

I use PSP9

Thanks Tammy

[Emma]

In PSP 9 is SO easy, you'll love this!

On your photo/layout, click the layer in the Layers Palette you want to have the mask on it (usually the photo layer).

Then go to Selection>Load/Save Mask and load, browse to the jpg file you saved. Click OK and it's there! So fast. Let us know if those instructions aren't detailed enough, or if you run into any trouble

[Emma]

I'm getting really annoyed using these masks in PSE!!! Since the Quick Mask Mode no longer works for PSE 4, the only way to use these is to put the grayscale mask above the photo layer, invert it, and use Screen blend mode.
http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/photoshopelements/ht/psemaskedges1.htm
That works BUT only on a white background!!! Otherwise, the edge of the mask is visible in white, and the background won't show through it. I can't put any cool backgrounds around the photo because I can't figure out how to get rid of that white block (tried every other Blend Mode too).

I have tried magic wanding the black or white area to delete the excess, but it won't get the subtle grays in a lot of masks
http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/photoshopelements/ht/psemaskedges2.htm

There must be some decent way to use these in PSE w/o needing the Quick Mask Mode so you can follow the PS instructions, or so you can use a non-white background. Any PSEers who successfully use these masks, please share!!!

[Marriedin79]

Are you familiar with layer masks? I have several tutorials posted on using them in the Quick Class section, here's one
http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/university/layermasksPS.shtml



Emma! Help! The link goes to a "page not found"!

[Emma]

we moved stuff around int he tutorials section awhile back, this is an old thread. It's the Intro to Masks for PS tutorial, you've likely already seen it, in the Beginners section

[Marriedin79]

Thanks . . . shows how much I pay attention to the age of the posts.

[LadynRed]

No Channels in PSE 4 Emma ?

[Emma]

nope, no channels. I tried that, to save the selection in an alpha channel, but the Multi-Channel Mode .psd file won't even open in PSE.

That was my last "brilliant" idea, didn't work, on to the next one. How do PSE users make use of these masks?

[lvich]

You CAN use layer masks in PE but you need some version of FREE Tools to allow you access to some of the features that are hidden in the program. You can get one version of these FREE Tools from Paul Shipley here: http://member.melbpc.org.au/%7Epshipley/ Another version is available from Grant Dixon here: http://www.cavesofice.org/~grant/Challenge/Tools/index.html

Once you have the tools installed and can apply a layer mask, you can actually paste a specific mask like from the sites listed above into the layer mask:

Control-A to select the mask and then Control-C to copy it.
Click on the layer mask thumbnail to select it and then Alt-click the mask thumbnail to display only it on the desktop. Control-V to paste the mask into it. Click back onto the image thumbnail to return to the regular view.

For this to work, the mask MUST be the same size and resolution as your image. To get this to work, you can simply do it like this before copying and pasting the mask image as related above:


Both the mask and the image that you want to add the mask to must be open on the desktop. Make sure you are in the mask document. Choose Image, Resize, Image Size but don't make any changes. Instead, leave the dialog box open and choose Window, Images, and select the name of the image you are using. Then click ok. This will make the mask the same sie as your image.

Hope this helps out you Photoshop Elements users! It can be a real challenge using PE to do what you want . . . that's why I prefer PS CS2!

The ha

[Emma]

It works great when using the Grant's Tools with Quick Mask Mode, but PSE 4 no longer supports that action.

I came up with a few alternate routes for PSE 4 for my montage class, but the quick Mask mode is far superior for PSE 2 and 3
It sounds like you're using the regular layer mask to do this? Not the Quick Mask Mode?

I hadn't seen the Paul Shipley stuff before, thanks for pointing that out!

[lvich]

Try the other set of FREE tools from Paul Shipley then. He has updated them so that they work with PE 2, 3 or 4.

[Emma]

Here's a quote from Paul's site about the tools:

Use Red, Green or Blue Channels
Add Layer Masks
Quick Mask Mode (not in PSE4)
Channel Mixer Adjustment Layers (not in PSE4)
Curves Adjustment Layers (not in PSE4)
Additional Recipes (PSE1 only)
Save Selections (PSE1 only)

Grant had the same issue, they removed the programming leftover from PS so things like Quick Mask and Curves actions just won't work. I tried writing my own actions for these too, don't work!

I'd like to hear more about your layer mask, alt-click method. Since the grayscale masks are black and white, they're ocmpletely opaque, so Ctrl-clicking to select them gets the entire image rectangle, not just the black part. The Magic Wand can't capture the subtleties of most masks. The best I could do was wand away the white part and use the Screen Blending mode, though again there are some white areas in the grey part that are still there.

I miss Quick Mask...I miss being able to load these types of masks, I miss being able to run filters on selections, I just miss it! I'm so glad I have some versions of PSE that can still use it, and PS too.

[Art-C]

There's a Freebie available I downloaded yesterday called "Edges Pack" that has about 10 photo edges. There's a good variety and the price is right!

Bonnie