Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 Creating a 3D Photo Frame

Hi, everybody--Mike Brown back with you one more time, with another lesson in Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 from Educator.com!0000

I have now taught you most of the tools, techniques, and features that you need to do almost anything you want to--images and graphics--and now, I'm going to show you some cool examples of different things, so that I can stimulate your creativity and show you how you do these cool things, using all of the basic techniques and tools that we have learned in the past.0008

In this lesson, I'm going to show you how to create a three-dimensional recessed photo frame; there it is right there.0030

You see, we have an image, and (I'll zoom it up) you see that the image is recessed below the matting board around it, and the mat board is a textured mat board with a little bit of color on it, and it is also framed, as you can see, in a three-dimensional beveled frame, and it's a signed image.0038

It looks really cool--very simple to make; there is one or two tricky uses of selections here, to get this recessed effect; that is, there is no button for this; I'm going to show you how to do that.0059

Let's go ahead and get started!0073

The first thing we want to do (let's get our layers back) is get just the image; so, we'll take the layer with the image on it, Command/Control, click, and that selects the image.0076

Command/Control+C to copy, and what we're going to do is: we're going to create a new, blank file (Command/Control+N).0087

A tidbit: when you copy an item into the Clipboard, and then immediately you go to Command/Control+N to do a new, blank file, it will assume the dimensions and resolution of the object in the Clipboard.0096

When you do it from scratch, with nothing in the Clipboard, you will get a small file that you can make anything you want, size-wise.0112

We could here, too, but what we want to do is make it fit the image, and it automatically did that.0118

So, if I click OK, there is the same size as the image; Command/Control+V to paste, and it's exactly the right size.0123

I'm going to consolidate this to tabs, and there is our image.0132

The first thing we want to do is: we want to create (let's go in to find the file) the mat board and the shadow recess.0136

So, what we're going to do is: we're going to take our background layer and duplicate it twice.0147

Now, I want to make sure we have the mat board, so we have to increase the canvas size to get that mat board.0156

There are two ways to do that: you can do it the traditional way, which is Image, Resize, Canvas Size (which I prefer because it's more precise); there is also another way, and I'll show it to you.0164

Take your Crop tool, and instead of cropping in to make an item smaller, we'll crop out, which will increase the background.0176

All we're going to do: take the Crop tool; no restrictions; click and drag, and if I were to just pull on the Crop tool like normal, I can make the box go anywhere--it's free to roam.0185

However, if I hold the Shift key down, it will go either in or out, maintaining the proportions of the image; but you notice, it starts from the opposite corner; it moves where you pull it.0198

We want it to go out uniformly; so, I'm going to go in one time, down on the size, do it; hold the Shift key and you Option on a Mac/Alt on a PC; grab a corner; and notice, now it pulls uniformly from the center.0212

So, let's get it out to the sides; look about where we want it; that's about fine, right there; now, we're going to click inside of that Crop box and move it down until the sides and the top are approximately the same--there we go--and a little excess on the bottom.0227

This is the normal way, from the artistic, dynamic point of view, that you frame an image.0247

You don't frame it with the same distance all the way around the mat; it becomes very static; you move it up to have just a little dimension.0253

We'll click OK, and it comes in with the background color, but that is all right; we'll default with D, and we'll flip them, and Option/Alt, Delete; there we have the mat board.0261

Now, that was one way to do it; I'll show you the other way, which is the way I usually use.0274

We'll go to Image, Resize, Canvas Size, and what I'm going to do--normally, you could type in the width and height you want; I just want to increase this--maybe (let me look at the actual image size of the image)...you want to go about 10% of the image, so it's going to be about an inch and a half, top and bottom, right and left side.0281

Notice, it's 15 inches; so I'm guessing around an inch and a half.0302

Image, Resize, Canvas Size; by clicking the Relative box, all you do is type in...an inch and a half on each side is a total of 3 inches, so we type in 3 at the width, 3 at the height, and it will split that equally.0306

There we have an inch and a half all the way around our image.0323

We need a little more on the bottom: Image, Resize, Canvas Size once more; constrain it by clicking up so it will only go down, and click the Relative away.0326

I could do the Relative...no; you want to just add it to the height.0337

I want to go maybe three-quarters of an inch; let's just go seven-tenths of an inch; 18.7, click OK, and it just increased it.0343

We got pretty much the same thing that we did by using the Crop, but we know that these are exactly the same width--top and sides.0353

All right, now we have our canvas, and what that actually did is made these transparent, and I don't want that, so Option/Alt, Delete, Option/Alt, Delete again; and that will put the white.0363

We have all-white copies of our background; we're going to move these two to the very top.0381

The objective here, right now, is: we have our mat board; we now want to put the recessed shadow in; and this is the trick that I figured out how to do in here; there is a different, fairly easy way in Photoshop that does not work in Elements, but I have made it work for you.0387

What we're going to do is, first, knock these two blank layers out to the picture size; Command/Control, click the image, and we have the selection, and select one of them; delete; select the other one; delete.0404

You can see by the checkerboard you see there; we have knocked them out.0416

Now, we're going to take the lowermost image, and that is the one that is going to have the shadow on it, and it will block out by the top layer to be just fine.0420

We're OK; we're ready to go.0431

Now, we're going to go (let me zoom it up once or twice, so we can see the corners)...let's go to the Select, Refine Edge menu.0433

I have set the Refine Edge at green (by the way, to change the color on the overlay, Option/Alt, click the overlay thumbnail; where color indicates masked areas, you can select any color, and I'm going with a very high opacity here, because I want to show you as the shadow creates itself).0441

Now, this is where--remember feather; it softens the edge by the number of pixels you type in--outward and inward.0460

In this case, we're going to be utilizing the fact that feather goes inside, instead of outside; watch.0471

I'm going to take the feather; watch the edge (let me zoom it up one more time so you can actually see this); I'm going to feather it about 36; notice that the feather of the selection itself, not the masked area, came inwards; that is half of the selection.0479

What we're going to do is: we're going to shift the edge in just slightly, just a little bit right there.0497

OK, now we have our shadow area, and we need to apply it.0507

We'll click OK, and the selection, you will notice, is of the image; we want to select the mat board underneath and make the shadow come out from there.0511

Select Inverse, and now we have the mat board selected; let me show you what that looks like with our tool.0524

You can see that the mat board is selected, and it feathers out into the image a little bit, which is exactly what I want, because I want to fill with black in the selection, and that will be the soft edge.0533

Let's go back to selection, and let's zoom it up so you can see it.0549

What we're going to do now is: we're going to make a gradient, except it's going to be a little different.0554

It's going to be black on black--notice: black 100%, white--the foreground and background are both black, and I'm going to work this; if it's 100%, it's all black.0560

I could do this with fill, but it's the same--taking a gradient--a new trick on gradients; if the foreground and the background of the gradient are both the same, and you click and drag, you are just filling with that color.0570

So now, by clicking and dragging, I will fill with black at 20%.0587

Let's do Command/Control+H, and click and drag on the second layer.0592

We're beginning to see a little; click and drag a second time, and a third time, and even a fourth time, and there you go: now you can see that (let's go down here, where you can see it)...let's go one more time; there you go; even one more, we can do--there we go!0599

We have a really nice, recessed shadow; notice how that is coming out underneath the image.0618

What we really did is: there is the layer; we did nothing more than drop a gradient across the selection of that framework, and it was a soft edge and allowed it to come out, and when we turn on the one above it, it hides it and becomes a shadow.0625

An interesting trick--nobody is going to teach you that one.0643

There you go; now, we have recessed the image; let's take this layer and add texture to it.0646

Let's go to the Paint Bucket tool, and let's paint in a pattern--let me see what the textures are that we have here; I want a nice, uniform one...I think the one I'm going to try is Weave...4...200x200; I can't decide: this one or this one?0653

Let's try this one; we can find the other one as we go along if we want to try it.0681

We'll load the selection of the frame (Command/Control, click); that is where we're going to drop our pattern; we're going to use the Paint Bucket.0685

Now, we're going to drop it at about 100%, and the mode of blend is normal--we're just dropping the texture, painting in a pattern.0693

Drop it, and there is the texture; I don't like it--it has a lot of repetition--so let's go back and pick this one up and try that.0703

That, too, didn't work really, really well; let's go over to this one and try that one; I think the other one was a little bit better.0715

Let's take it back to maybe 80%, so that...there we go!0725

Now, you see, we have a texture on the mat board, and as we come up, that looks pretty good.0730

All right, we have a texture.0740

Now, all I want to do is tint that texture; so we're still on this layer, taking the Paint Bucket now, and we'll use Paint instead.0742

Traditionally, (Command/Control+H), when you are making a mat around a photo, if you want a (you either do it in gray or white...or black) colored mat, you want to pick a color out of the image that is not the main color.0752

If we did this in that reddish pink, it would detract from the image--it would just spread out in your eyes, going all over; but your eye goes down the hall to that painting, so what we want to do is highlight that layer, take our color picker tool, and pick maybe this nice little sand color.0768

There is the foreground color; go back up to the mat, and now we'll take the Paint Bucket, and we'll fill (which is the same thing we were doing with the Gradient--black on black--but we just have our color, foreground color); and let's put 20% down on the textured mat.0788

A little bit came in--not much yet; let's go a little more.0809

Let's try one more time.0812

That seems to be a little too much; I'll undo, and there we have a nice, gentle...just a little bit of color.0815

Let's put a Levels layer on that now; we'll pop the whole thing.0822

Adjustment layer for Levels, only for that mat board; let's brighten it up a little bit and snap the contrast...there!0828

That pulls--remember, exposure affects color; it helped the texturization a little bit, and now the color looks pretty good, too.0837

Look at that--now we have a colored, textured mat, recessed above the picture.0846

The only step left is to do our frame and put some signature on it.0852

Let's go to the background; let's go to Image, Resize, Canvas Size, and we're going to do Relative again, maybe (let's see; that is 18 inches) six-tenths of an inch; so let's go 1.2 inches relative--that is six-tenths on each side--and let's see what that looks like.0860

It came up; that is a reasonable-sized frame; it's rather narrow; let's go a little bit more.0884

Canvas Size; let's go with an inch and a half, 1.5, 1.5, click it, and there--that is nice; three-quarters of an inch all the way around.0890

We have increased the size of the overall image now.0902

We're going to duplicate that background layer, and again, move it up to the top.0907

We want to knock out from the mat board in; but the mat board, you notice, is just a frame; so I'll show you what we'll do.0914

Command/Control, click, and it loads that--that is the outer edge we want; we just need to fill in that selection.0923

So, go to the rectangular Marquee; Shift to add; click and drag, and make it one solid selection for that entire area, Select Inverse, and now we have just the frame up on top.0931

We're going to do the same thing--another knockout; we're going to invert it, and knock that out, and now we have the frame on the outside.0947

Let's invert the selection again, and we're going to fill it with black.0957

Make black the foreground color; Option/Alt, Delete, and we could actually stop right here.0961

But, we're going to take it a step further; let's go ahead and use an effect.0969

Let's go to our Layers Effects; and you have all sorts of options, as we went through before; we're going to go with Bevels.0975

Let's zoom this thing up so you can see it, right on the corner.0983

Let' see what happens; we have several choices--let's double-click the first one; that is kind of modernistic; I kind of like that, actually.0988

It's a conventional frame, but I like it.1000

We could have gone with a curved edge, but let's go ahead with this bevel; I like that.1002

But, I would like to have the bevel accentuated a little more, so now, we'll go back to the Layers; and notice the little Effects sign that came in next to that layer.1008

If we click on that--double-click--there are your style settings for a bevel.1016

Let's zoom it up again, and we can increase the size of the bevel--notice how it's coming up on us now.1022

Now, we have a really nice look; let's change the lighting angle a little bit--I want to try to get--there we go!1031

Get just about 45 degrees; click OK; zoom it down; and look what we have.1039

We have a really nice frame with beveled edge, and you can see the lighting on it.1047

Let's take the layers away, and so now we have the one I did before; I had a rounded one on; in this case, the one we just did here--we have a really nice textured mat; we have the recessed image; we have the frame.1052

The only thing we need now is a signature!1069

Let's bring the layers back up again; let's go down to the frame, which is...we can retitle this as Textured Mat, and title this as Frame; OK.1072

So, let's take the Textured Mat layer, and let's put a type layer right above that; let's just hit the type.1091

We have our Type tool; Helvetica Oblique--we'll just leave it where it is, and let's go ahead and zoom up, and once...1100

Remember, a layer comes in right above the layer that you are working on; so, I already have a Levels layer; I'm going to go above the Levels layer.1107

We just click, and there is our type layer.1118

Let's go to Photography, and By, and we'll accept that; and it's a little small, so let's go back to our Type tool, and let's up the type size to 20.1121

We need to do the same thing with our leading to separate them; that looks pretty decent.1138

Actually, we could go a little bit bigger; let's go to 27, and 27, and there we go--that looks pretty good!1145

Actually, let's move it over; let's take the Move tool, and I'm just going to use the arrow keys to just move it over a little and up a little bit, and that looks pretty good right there.1154

Now, all I need to do is add my signature, and I have made a (let's see if I can open it this way: File, Open Recent)...I actually signed my signature, a long time ago, and digitized it so I can always use it as either a brush or as something on any page, or an item, or whatever you want to do.1165

So, here it is; we're going to use the black layer; I'm going to go to Select, Load Selection, and I have two selections, and there is the one for the black: Command/Control+C to copy; Command/Control+W to close the window; and now, we'll zoom it down a little bit.1190

Command/Control+V to paste; it came in rather large, so let's just go ahead and readjust it down so it's about the right size and shape.1208

We'll accept that, and I'm going to drag that layer...1227

Now, see what happens; when you're trying to work with a type layer, it's very hard to grab the layer, so what I'm going to do is (that signature...it needs to see it)...what is happening is, the cursor is seeing below it.1231

So, we're going to move this also with the arrow keys; it's just very hard to grab a type layer when it's above an object layer.1249

This will just take a moment to get it over here.1259

This thing looks pretty cool, doesn't it?--we have a really nice frame; we have a mat that looks wonderful; I like the recess; we could actually even put a stroke on that edge, but let's not get too complex on this whole thing.1263

Moving the layer down, maybe I can grab it, now that it's down here; there we go.1275

I'll put that in place, and let's Command/Control+T, and let's make it just a little bit smaller, so it fits right there.1280

Accept it, and there you have the entire finished product!1295

Starting with the photo, adding the mat board, and, with the trick that I showed you of taking two frames for the mat; taking the bottom one; making a selection of the mat; and feathering it inward and filling it with black--let me duplicate that layer, so you can see exactly what we did with it.1304

That is what we did with that layer; that brought that little shadow look, which is blocked by the textured top.1328

Then, we added the increased canvas size again, used a layer effect for bevel--a particular choice of bevel from our Effects choices under Bevels, modified it to give ourselves a nice frame look, and then signed it.1335

There you have how to make a 3-D photo frame.1356

Just as a reminder of all the things that we used, that you all have known already: Canvas Size (a different way to do canvas size--we also did it with Crop this time, which shows you a second way to increase your canvas size--you crop outward, rather than inward); we used Selections as usual.1360

And, we used feather to get that nice, soft little shadow, if you will; Refine Edge dialog box to get the feather; Gradient tool to drop down the black; Paint Bucket for texture and color; we added text and a bevel, all of this in Adobe Photoshop Elements 11!1382