Advanced Tips

 

Adding a Drop Shadow

in Paintshop Pro 6 and above:

After you applied the edge to the photo, select the surrounding border with the magic wand tool and invert the selection. To avoid ugly edge pixels, contract the selection by 3 pixels and feather it by 3 pixels. Finally apply the Drop Shadow effect from the Image Menu.

in Photoshop 5 and above:

After you applied the edge to the photo and flattened it, turn it into a layer by double clicking on it in the Layers palette. Select the surrounding border with the magic wand tool. Press the Del key to remove the outer area and make it transparent. Apply Drop Shadow from the Layer/Effects menu. Finally flatten the image.

In Photo-Paint 9 and above:

After you applied the edge to the photo, create a mask of the plain outer area with the magic wand tool. Invert the mask and feather it if necessary. Copy the mask to the clipboard and paste it as an object on top of the background. Select the object dropshadow tool and drag it to create a drop shadow effect. Finally combine all objects with the background and remove the mask.

With Eye Candy:

After you applied the edge to the photo, select the surrounding border with the magic wand tool and invert the selection. To avoid ugly edge pixels, contract the selection by 3 pixels and feather it by 3 pixels. Finally apply the Drop Shadow effect from Eye Candy plugin set.

 

Adding a Bevel Effect

in Paintshop Pro 6:

After you applied the edge to the photo, select the surrounding border with the magic wand tool and invert the selection. Finally apply the Outer Bevel effect from the Image Menu.

With Eye Candy:

After you applied the edge to the photo, select the surrounding border with the magic wand tool and invert the selection. Finally apply the Outer Bevel effect from the Eye Candy plugin set.

In PhotoDraw:

After you applied the edge to the photo, select the 3-D effect from the Effects button menu and use the settings to create a 3D beveled effect.

 

Doing a Transparency Effect

in Paintshop Pro and Photoshop:

Resize the edge file to the size of the photo, select the whole edge and copy it to the clipboard. Paste the clipboard as a new layer into the photo file and select Multiply as a blending mode. Finally turn the transparency/opacity of the pasted layer to 50% and flatten the image.

In Photo-Paint 9 and above:

When applying an edge in the Frame dialog, simply drag the Opacity slider to e.g. 50% and press the OK button.

In PhotoDraw:

After you applied the edge to the photo, select the Transparency effect from the Effects button menu and drag the Transparency slider to e.g. 50%.

 

Softening the Edge

in Paintshop Pro:

To get a white border apply Negative Image to the edge file. Resize the edge file to the size of the photo, select the whole edge and copy it to the clipboard. Paste the clipboard as a new layer into the photo file and select Screen or Multiply as a blending mode. Finally apply a Gaussian Blur.

In Photoshop:

To get a white border apply Invert from the Image/Adjust menu to the edge file. Resize the edge file to the size of the photo, select the whole edge and copy it to the clipboard. Paste the clipboard as a new layer into the photo file and select Screen or Multiply as a blending mode. Finally apply a Gaussian Blur.

In Photo-Paint 9 and above:

When applying an edge in the Frame dialog, simply drag the Blur slider to the right and press the OK button.

In PhotoDraw:

After you applied the edge to the photo, select the Blur and Sharpen effect from the Effects button menu and drag the Blur/Sharpen slider to e.g. -32. To compensate the transparency at the outer border simply enlarge the edge.

 

Adding an Inner Border

in Paintshop Pro 6:

To get a white border apply Negative Image to the edge file. Resize the edge file to the size of the photo, select the whole edge and copy it to the clipboard. Paste the clipboard as a new layer into the photo file. Select the inner black area of the edge with the magic wand tool and contract the selection by e.g. 16 pixels. Feather the selection and press the Del key to delete the selection area and make the photo shine through.

In Photoshop:

To get a white border apply Invert from the Image/Adjust menu to the edge file. Resize the edge file to the size of the photo, select the whole edge and copy it to the clipboard. Paste the clipboard as a new layer into the photo file. Select the inner black area of the edge with the magic wand tool and contract the selection by e.g. 16 pixels. Feather the selection and press the Del key to delete the selection area and make the photo shine through.

In Photo-Paint 9 and above:

In the Frame dialog open the same edge twice. Select the first edge from the list box and set the background color to white. Then select the second edge from the list box, set the background color to black and scale the edge to e.g. 90%. Finally press the OK button.

In all versions of Photo-Paint:

Open a photo and an edge files. To get a white outer border in the edge file, apply Invert from the Image menu. Resize the edge file to the size of the photo, mask the whole edge and copy it to the clipboard. Paste the clipboard as a new object onto the photo file. Select the inner black area of the edge object with the magic wand tool and reduce the mask by e.g. 16 pixels. Feather the mask and press the Del key to delete the masked area and make the photo shine through. Finally combine all object with the background and remove the mask.

 

Adding a background image

in Paintshop Pro:

Firstly apply the edge as described in the instructions under "II. The Advanced and Easy Way", but don't merge the layers. Instead open the image that shall replace the outer border, select the whole image and copy it to the clipboard. Paste the clipboard as a new layer into the framed image and drag the new layer in the Layer Palette below the framed layer. Finally merge all layers.

In Photoshop:

Place the edge as a layer over the photo as described in the instructions. But omit the last two steps and do the following: Open the image that shall replace the outer border, select the whole image and copy it to the clipboard. Paste the clipboard as a third layer into the image with the two layers and drag the new layer in the Layer Palette between the background layer and the edge layer. Select the Screen blending mode for the edge layer and choose "Merge Down" from the Layer menu. Select the white inner area with the magic wand and press the Del key to remove the area. Finally merge all layers.

In PhotoImpact:

Apply the edge as a selection on the photo as described in the instructions. But omit the last two steps and do the following: Open the image that shall replace the outer border, select the whole image and copy it to the clipboard. Use Paste | Adapt to Selection from the Edit menu and remove the selection.