Poster Edges Worksheet

I. Creating Poster Edges

A. Photo Borders with Artistic Filters

1) Choose the Rectangular Marquee and create a selection to include most of your image. Be sure to leave enough room for border creation.

2) With the active selection, enter Quick Mask Mode. The selection now changes into a Quick Mask which can be modified by more than a brush.

* Areas colored by a mask are not part of the active selection.

3) Go to Filter>Brush Strokes>Sprayed Strokes to introduce an edge effect. Adjust the Length, Radius, and Direction. Choose OK.

* Investigate other Filters including Spatter and Film Grain.

4) Exit out of the Quick Mask and back into Standard Mode. This will reactivate the selection and dancing ants on your image.

5) Now, double-click the Background to change it into an New Layer. Assign a proper name to this layer.

* CS3 users can disregard this step.

6) Add a Layer Mask to the newly created layer. This hides the external border area of the photograph while revealing a subtle artistic poster edge.

7) Highlight the Layer Mask and use the Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur to refine the presence and believability of poster edges.

8) The final image can have quite interesting results. Try filling with a layer behind the image using different colors for a variety of effects.

© 2007, Matthew Roderick