#16 Easy Do-It-Yourself Frames for Photoshop, Special Effects

Not so long ago I showed you how to make easy vignette frames for your pictures. Well, now are kicking it up a notch.

Open the photo you want “manipulated” in PhotoShop(I am using CS4, but you can do it in an older version with no difference in procedure). Use any selection tool to highlight the part of the picture that you don’t want to change and add a feather value of 20(or whatever you want actually) like so:

(click to enlarge). Now, right click the selection and then Select Inverse. Now you can start adding your effects.

Now that you have the outer side selected, you can use any brush tool, or adjustment, on just that area. I suggest clicking on Filters and experimenting with the various choices there.

This is what you can get if you use the Glowing Edges Filter.

Of course, you can use any random shaped selection for your frames, you don’t have to use the standard selection tools. And you can use this trick for more then just frames. PhotoShop does all the work for you:

It’s really simple to do, and all you need is a photo to work with and some ideas. It only takes about half a minute once you get the hang of it. You might discover a side of you that you never knew!