Create Sloppy Borders with PhotoFrame Pro
We just finished up the Imaging USA Expo and after a one day delay due to the crazy ice storm, I'm on my way home, only to get stuck (again) in Dallas. Oh well, I'll use this extra time on the ground - with Internet access - to share my method of creating the ever-popular Sloppy Border look using PhotoFrame Pro 3. I did a lot of this at the Imaging USA Expo this week and lots of people asked me how I did it, so here it is...we'll work with this original image.
Step 1 - In Photoshop, open your image and then go into PhotoFrame Pro 3. To get the sloppy border look, I think that some of the Brush edges from Volume 1 work best, but you should feel free to experiment with other frames.
Step 2 - To start, apply your frame by double clicking on the frame you like in the Frame Browser and set the color to black using the Background palette. Adjust the frame so the inside edge is where you want it.
You can use the Size slider in the Background palette or you can adjust each side individually using the "handles" on the frame. When you do, it will look something like this:
Step 3 - After you've added your first frame, next add one of the Vignette frames (look in Volume 1 > Vignette or do a search for Vignette).
Leave the background color setting to white, but - and this is the most important part - change the Blend mode to Multiply. When you do this, the white Vignette frame will hide any part of the underlying frame that has a background color set to black. So for a moment, it may appear that you do not have any frame applied at all.
To start to reveal the underlying Brush frame, increase the size of the Vignette frame using either the Size slider in the Background palette or grab the handles and move them independently.
You can get even more creative by adding multiple frames below the Vignette layer and setting the background color to black and adjusting the size to reveal or hide more or less of the frame.
In this case, I've added another frame layer with the same brush frame (brush_08) and then in the Background palette, I clicked the Flip Horizontal button. This gave me the look I was going for.
Here's a screenshot of the Flip Horizontal button and what my PhotoFrame layer stack looks like.
Step 4 - I then sent this frame to my Photoshop layers palette by clicking the Apply to New Layer button. This is how I always apply new frames and recommend how you apply them to as it gives you the most flexibility as you'll see in a moment.
You might notice that in our almost-final image, the frame looks identical (or nearly so) on the left and right sides. This isn't what we want. So let's add a layer mask to our PhotoFrame layer and we'll paint away part of the frame.
Click the Add Layer Mask button in the Layers palette.
Set your foreground color to Black and select the brush tool. Adjust the brush settings to have a softer edge. I always adjust the brush opacity to about 50% and the brush flow to about 60% because this allows me to "build" up or down the desired effect. If these values were at 100% it would result in a very harsh look.
With the settings in place, brush over the part of the edge you would like to hide.
The key to this is to have fun, experiment and think about how you can use multiple frames together with the blend modes to truly create, one of a kind edge effects.
All images copyright Mike Wong 2007