that he'll want to know how i made my border

Welcome to a short tutorial on how to produce my drop shadow frame

First we need to sort out how big the final border is going to be and where in the frame the picture will sit, and how big and what shape the shadow is going to be. A little

tiral and error to give you a border size you are happy with.

With the resized Photograph in the border where you want it to be we'll begin.



We need to add the shadows for adding later to the action.

Select the pen tool (Shift + P / P) and draw one side of the shadow (we'll duplicate it later)

Make a new layer (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+N) call it shadow



Press D to make sure you have Black as your Background colour, and then fill the path (in the path tool pallet select the menu and fill path...) - make the shadow smaller than you think you need it, we'll enlarge it by using Gaussian blur later to soften the effect..




Duplicate it (Ctrl/Cmd + J), hide the original shadow layer


then goto Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur... (choose a setting of 8.0) this will be the softest of the shadow - select

multiply from the pallet menu and set the opacity to 80%.


Again create a new layer call it Inner Shadow


Holding Ctrl/Cmd click the hidden shadow layer, this will create a new selection (marching ants) in the shape of the shadow on the Inner Shadow Layer. Goto

Select>Modify>Contract>4px

Fill the selection Edit>Fill>Foreground Color (hold Alt/Option and press Backspace)

Goto Filter>Blur>Gassian Blur (Ctrl/Cmd+Alt/Option+F) and choose a setting of 3.0 again select Multiply and an Opacity of 78%.



Right thats 1/2 of our shadow made.. we have to mirror this for the right hand side.. holding Shift click on Background this will select all of the layers from Inner Shadow to Background. In the side menu on the Layers Pallet select Merge Layers (Ctrl/Cmd+E)

Using the Marquee tool (Shift+M/M) select the left hand side of the Background layer..

Duplicate the selection Ctrl/Cmd+J, using the Free Transform - Edit>Free Transform (Ctrl/Cmd+T) flip the layer on the horizontal plain - right click flip horizontal and place


On the right hand side. When in place hit the tick in the info tray (double click inside the transform or press return)

Merge Down - Pallet menu Merge Down (Ctrl/Cmd+E)


Next we're going to add the copyright to the border.
Create a new grayscale document with a transparent Background 141px wide x 19px high, use the Type tool (Shift+T/T) and using a clear typeface (font) type in the Copyrigh info, then when your happy set the Opacity to 50% and save as Copyright 2007.psd in a new Directory/Folder.

Have a logo? we'll add that next.

Adding Logo

Open your logo into photoshop (if its an eps file - rasterize to a hight of 30px) if you're opening a raster file resize to 30px, then drag into the border file (drag the layer from the open logo onto the border file)

If it fits ok, we're in business, save the Logo as PSD file into the same Directory/Folder as the copyright, if not then transform to fit (Ctrl/Cmd+T)

If you've had to resize then copy out into a new document and save.

Now we have to cut the shadow up so that we can make it fit in either portrait or landscape mode.

Using Guides, draw 2 horizontal and 2 vertical lines (the horizontal lines must be the same distance from the left and right side)


Now using the Knife tool (Shift+K/K) slice the corner. Once all the corners have been sliced, rename each to reflect each - top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right


Hiding the photo, Save for web, File>Save for Web (Ctrl/Cmd+Alt/Option+Shift+S) - choose JPEG, Quality 100, Select each of the corners and save to the same Directory/Folder as the copyright

Its Showtime!

Open a photo - In the actions pallet add a new action either by the action menu 'New Action...' or by clicking on the new action button this will make a new action and call up a dialogue box, give the action a name, and if you like an action key (F1-12).

Hit OK and the action will automatically start recording.
now we have to resize the photo to fit within the finished border, goto File>Automate>Fit Image... and type 738px into width and height.

Hit Ok

Now we have our photo sized in either portrait or landscape mode.. then we need to sharpen to allow for the resize - Filter>Sharpen>Sharpen... next we have to take the shapen back a little so as not to over sharpen the image so we'll fade the image to 60% Opacity - Edit>Fade Sharpen... (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+F) select 60% Opacity and Mode>Luminosity


So we don't effect the photo, we need to duplicate it.

Now we have to add the border around the edge of the photo, goto Image>Canvas Size... (Ctrl/Cmd+Alt/Option+C) and we're going to add 38 pixels all the way around the image. To do this we use the relative check box (this adds or takes away pixels) select white to use as the Background and hit OK.



Extra height needs adding to allow for the extra information at the bottom of the border - again we goto the Canvas Size command.. selecting relative again put 16 pixels in the height box and click the middle top square in the grid and click OK.


Select the Background Layer

Open the first of the Shadow files - Top Left - then select all - goto Edit>Select All... (Ctrl/Cmd+A) and Copy the image - goto Edit>Copy... (Ctrl/Cmd+C) and close the file - File>Close (don't save changes) (Ctrl/Cmd+W). Now with the photo we are editing, paste the image - goto Edit>Paste... (Ctrl+Cmd+V).

Select Background and while holding Shift click on the new Layer. Goto Layer>Align>Top Edges, again Layer>Align>Left Edges.


Duplicate the open, copy, close, and paste with Top Right - Select Background and holding Ctrl/Cmd select the new layer. Goto Layer>Align>Top Edges, again Layer>Align>Right Edges.


open Bottom Left, copy, close, and paste - Select Background and holding Ctrl/Cmd select the new layer. Goto Layer>Align>Bottom Edges, again Layer>Align>Left Edges.


Last open Bottom Right, copy, close and paste - Select Background and holding Ctrl/Cmd select teh new layer. Goto Layer>Align>Bottom Edges, again Layer>Align>Right Edges.



again Layer>Align>Left Edges then select Layer 6 and using the move tool (Shift+M/M) and the cursor keys tweek the copyright into position.


Open the Logo file - Select all, copy, close and paste - select the Background and holding Ctrl/Cmd slect the new layer. Goto Layer>Align>Bottom Edges, again


Layer>Align>Right Edges, select layer 7 and tweek with the cursor keys make layer multiply.


Goto the side menu on Layer Pallet and select Flatten.

Stop Recording

Fin!

remember tweek to your own tastes

yes i know my shadows don't look very good in this version - it was a rush job!

Wow, that's pretty impressive! Thanks for posting the tutorial!

that is very cool, thanks for explaining with pictures for us simple foke

You're a legend Bob!

Yes in deed...sir, you ARE a legend!

BTW, whats the story with the pen tool? When I click to draw something I get a weird looking bar that extends in both directions when I draw?

The upshot is, I cant create a block of black like anything you have Bob??

Regards

Mailman