How to add a creative photo border?

[Sylvia_W]

Hi, all, I have nearly no experience using layers in Photoshop (except for adding text on .tif and .jpg files).

Does Photoshop CC have a simple way for me to add a slightly creative photo frame (border) to my photo?

I do see this helpful Adobe page re how to do a standard border, and have used it successfully. https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/how-to/add-border-frame-around-photo.html

Now I want a more creative border. Here is the corner of a friend's photo to show you the border I'm after, which she created easily with the Filter feature in Nik software.

So, can I do this with Photoshop? Hoping not to have to buy Nik. Thanks very much.

[Trevor.Dennis]

This is one of those many roads lead to Rome questions.  There are even a ton of Actions you can download to give a distressed border effect This was dead simple though

The black outline is just the Photoshop UI.

The background layer is white

The layer above filled with green to simulate an image

Added a layer mask to the green layer.

• Ctrl a to select all
• Edit Stroke choosing Inside and colour black
• This produces the white border, so make the stroke the size of the required border

Add a new layer, and find a suitable brush that has some scatter and/or angle jitter.

I used this one from Kyle's Mega Pack

Now Ctrl click the layer mask to load it as a selection,

and at the bottom of the Paths panel, click on the Make path from selection icon

This will make a workpath the exact  size of the edge of the image.

Right click and choose Stroke Path, and if the Brush is not already selected, use the drop-down to do so

Simulate pressure should be unchecked

With Simulate Pressure on, it would have produced a tapered brush stroke, and it's a handy thing to remember

[Sylvia_W]

Trevor.Dennis, thanks so much for taking the time to explain this. I'm going to attempt. Sadly, this is way out of my skill range, and not what I'm looking for. I want an easy, really easy, solution for a photographer, not a graphic artist. Anyway, thanks again.

[JJMack]

https://www.google.com/search?q=photoshop+photo+borders+free+download&oq=Photoshop+Photo+borders&aqs...

[Sylvia_W]

JJMack, tried this first, of course. Tutorials, vector files, advertisements. These are not the solution I'm looking for.  Thanks.

[Sylvia_W]

Looks like this is the answer:

Filter  ->  Render  ->  Picture Frame

It doesn't have the frame pattern I want, but it is an easy way to get a frame.

[Trevor.Dennis]

Good gracious.  I hadn't even noticed that, and I use Render Trees all the time. 

It has given me a thought though, as you are looking for easy.  Unfortunately, not free.

Filter Forge will come  with hundreds of frame effects, including  the sort of distressed edges you showed us

This was applied to a full white layer, so you can see it is pretty intrusive.

Some of the grunge effects are centre rather than edge, but you could paste them into a layer mask to turn them into edge effects

So the distressed  paper look above, can become this frame effect.  There are a couple of steps involved, but  it  is not hard and can be made into an Action

Filter Forge is up to version 8 now, and costs $119.    I don't use it often, but it is handy when you need it.

Filter Forge - Buy Now!

Hey!  What am I thinking? Go check out Adobe Exchange for Frame Extensions. There are a few and a lot of them are free.  I don't think any are more than 30 bucks.

Creative Cloud

[Bojan Živković]

I have some edges posted as freebie on my blog. Here is one set with 10 different edge effects https://www.designeasy.co/2014/10/free-frosty-and-painterly-edges-for.html

Ig you want to invest then I can recommend to you my products for which I can also provide additional help and support if you need it:

Here are my actions to add photo edges Photo Edges Bundle There are 168 different edge effects for $6.

Here are PSD templates with 400 different edge effects for $6.95 Cool Edges Bundle (PSD)