What's the best way to go about doing a border like this in photoshop. I really like the style that mattson use's so maybe he could let us in on his little secret

^^^that looks great as is^^^

yes but i didn't do it! hench why i am asking

In photochop, something like....

Choose white as your background colour.
Canvas size, 40 pixels bigger in height and width.
Theres the white part done easy.
Select all,
Select, modify, border, 10 pixels
Chose black as your background color.
Hit delete.
Theres the black frame around the side, complete with faded edge.

Fiddle, play, trial and error.
Easy peasy.

Oh, and you can make up an automated batch to do this to an entire directory of pics without having to do it by hand every time..... but thats another story.

Yeah was going to ask something that was easily batchable. Thanks for that batching is the easy part

From the looks of that photo, there are a few things wrong with the border:

a) The "black" is thicker on the top, and right-hand-side bar, whereas it's skinnier on the left and bottom
b) The "white border" is too thin at the top, almost half that of the bottom/sides


But since you didn't want a critique of it , i will tell you how I would go about doing it ... it looks like a lot of steps, but it's VERY simple and straightfoward:


0. Create a new layer, ABOVE your picture ... make sure when you crop your image, you expand the selection by 30 pixels, so you aren't cutting out any of your image (that you want) with the border

1. Use "single row marquee" tool, select the very top and (holding down shift) select the very bottom as well

2. Continue to hold down shift, and use "single column marquee" tool on both the far left, and far right of the image.

3. You will now have a single pixel border around the entire image. Go to Select >> Modify >> Expand .... set it to "9" and fill with black

4. Press Ctrl+Shift+I (Inverts the selection) and fill with white

5. Go to Select >> Modify >> Contract .... set it to "20" and hit DELETE

You now have a nice looking border around your image Sorry if it made little sense, it's much easier to explain these things in person

fuck all that stuff... even easier.. download framefun.exe ... it's complete freeware

original picture in... framed picture out.

msn me if you can't find it

mattson_mih21@hotmail.com

i work 4 a photographer and we dont use borders any thicker than 15 pixels

That's awesome Thanks for that champ