How To Crop images into a Circle and add a border using Photoshop

[julesc1955]

I understand how to crop an image into a photo using the Frame Tool, however, I have no idea on how to add a border to a circular image. I've searched the web and YouTube, but haven't found anything. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[julesc1955]

FYI - I've never used Canva before, but I just found this video tutorial and it was very simple to implement the design I was looking for. Maybe this is a learning for me on when to use Canva vs. Photoshop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL2_SH75tN4

[Conrad_C]

It’s a limitation of the Frame tool in Photoshop. It’s a little surprising but right now, you can’t apply a stroke to the frame, and you also can’t work around it by adding a Stroke layer style.

It’s not a problem in other Adobe apps such as InDesign, Illustrator, and After Effects, where it’s easy to add a stroke (border) to a frame or to a path that clips/masks an image.

Hopefully in the future Adobe will upgrade how frames work.

[julesc1955]

@Conrad_C  thank you for your response. Yes, I too hope Adobe addresses this in a future update for Photoshop.  Thanks again.

[Stephen Marsh]

Rather than using the frame tool, apply a circular layer mask and apply a layer style. Best to use a smart object layer.

[Conrad_C]

Stephen_A_Marsh’s suggestion works, and in more than one way.

If a pixel mask is enough, draw the circle any way you like (such as with the Elliptical Marquee tool), as long as it ends up as a marquee selection, and then apply it as a layer mask. The mask pixels must be edited with the brush tooks and image adjustment tools.

If you want it to be more like a frame, so that it’s a resolution-independent vector path that’s easy to edit as a circle later, use the Ellipse tool to draw the circle as a path (not a shape), and while it’s selected in the Paths panel, apply it as a vector mask (Layer > Vector Mask > Current Path).

Both methods accept the Stroke style (Layer > Layer Style > Stroke), and applying a stroke Size and Color gives you the border. You have to do it this way because the Fill and Stroke options in the Properties panel can‘t be applied to masks or frames.

The picture below shows a circle path applied as a vector mask to the layer.