How to add a customized clipping mask/frame to your photos

A more complicated tutorial ....

I did follow Kristine's blog Lost in Creativity for the first frames that I used on my blog, as I was too lazy to do my own!!! I got requests to make a frame so I thought I would give it a go, so here goes .....

In this tutorial I am going to put a frame around a photo.

Below is the frame that I am going to use. I have designed this frame myself (first one, so it's a bit "rough") and I have made it free to download from here. All I ask is if you use my tutorial or my frame to link back to my blog!!!

The first thing to do is to download my frame from here. Make sure you use THE FULL SIZE IMAGE (click on image to enlarge). Download it and save it as a .png file.

Open both images in PSE7

If you click on these images you will get a larger image, right click and open in new tab, that way this post stays open as well.

We will work on the photo first, crop and edit (see pervious post).

Now press CTRL + J together (make a new layer). Then click on the eye so the background layer is "off".



Now click on the frame and drag it to your photo. Press CTRL + T (transform image) together and cover your photo completely with the frame.

Now your layer pallet should look like this. Frame first, then photo and then background layer.

You now need to drag the frame layer so it is in the middle of the 3 layers. Click on the frame layer keeping your finger pressed down and drag the layer so it is in the middle.



Highlight layer 1 (which is now the first one on the list). Now press CTRL + G (clipping/grouping images) together and let the magic begin!



Save your image and upload to your blog!

Hope you understood this, if not let me know and I will see if I can explain more!

Helena
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Adding a PSE clipping mask/frame to your photo

I have been asked how I added a frame to my photo, so I am going to do a nice and easy one.

I am using Photo Shop Elements 7 (PSE7), but it should work in other PSE. If you have a different editing software, I will try and find out how to do it in them, let me know by either e-mail or leave a comment.

We will be using the layer palette, so make sure you have it turned on.



This is how the frame turned out!



Load up your photo and edit it. Now press CTRL + J to make a new layer. Then on the background layer, click the eye so it doesn't show.





Pick out the frame you want and drag it to the photo or you can just click apply. Now drag the tabs at the edges of the frame so it covers the whole photo.







Put the mouse over the layer with the frame covering the photo and drag it so it is in the middle of layer 1 and background layer.



Now put the mouse over layer 1 (which is now the first layer on the list) and click to highlight. MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS!



Now press CTRL + G (to group the two layers together), the magic begins!

All you have to do now, is save!

Hope this was okay, let me know if I need to edit the tutorial!

Helena
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Editing a photo in Photo Shop Elements 7

I have been asked to do some tutorials. So first I am going to show the basic edit that I do on my photos. I use Photo Shop Elements 7 (PSE7). Sometimes it is quicker to use shortcuts, these are commands you type on the keyboard and the action happens in the photo, eg by pressing B, your brush tools turns on, by pressing CTRL + G you can group layers together. Here is the site that I found that has lists of shortcuts.

Original photo



Edited photo.



By clicking on the photos you will get a larger image!

Load your photo on to PSE. I then crop (6x4 for this one) and then use Auto Contrast (to give it more life), Saturation, usually to about 10 on the slide bar (to fix the colours) and Adjust Sharpness (all digital photos need a little help). On the top tool bar there is a tab called ENHANCE, this is where all the above commands can be found.



The first command I give is Auto Contrast (CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+L), this deepens the colours.
then I go to adjust colour, I go to adjust Hue/Saturation (or you can press CTRL + U), I usually just change the saturation by sliding the arrow to +10, but that is just my preference, depending on which way you drag the arrows you will either deepen or lighten the colours and if you go all the way to left (-100) you will change your photo to black and white!



I then go to Unsharp mask, play around with the settings until you find what you like, I usually have mine at set roughly at
Amount: 80%
Radius: 20 pixels
Threshold: 60 levels
all digital photos just need a little TLC, so this is why I sharpen my images!



And that is my basic photo edit!

Helena
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