Flatten your image
After your done working on your photo in Photoshop, flatten your image by selecting from the Menu - Layer...Flatten
You may want to save a copy of your image with all your editing layers before flattening the image.
Add a layer underneath your layer
Make the background layer into a normal layer by Selecting from the Menu - Layer..New...Layer from background
Make a new layer underneath the first layer. Hold ctrl alt and left click the new layer icon on the bottom of the layers palette.
Add additional canvas
Select this layer (left click on it). Add additional canvas to the image by selecting from the menu - Image...Canvas Size... add 2.5% Canvas to both width and height.
Fill this layer with black - or whatever color you choose.
Second option:
You can also just add a border to the layer to get different effects. From the Menu select Edit...Stroke and choose a color and size that fits the image.
Make a 3rd layer
Create a 3rd layer underneath your previous 2 layers. Hold ctrl alt and left click the new layer icon on the bottom of the layers palette.
Add more canvas
Select this layer (left click on it). Add additional canvas to the image by selecting from the menu - Image...Canvas Size... add 2.5% Canvas to both width and height.
Add canvas to the bottom for the text
Add an additional 10% of canvas to the bottom of the canvas by selecting from the menu - Image...Canvas Size...add 10% Canvas to the Height, and make sure you click the top center anchor arrow.
Fill the bottom layer with white.
Blur the middle layer
Select the middle layer (layer 1) by left clicking it, then select Filter...Blur...Gaussian Blur - 10 usually works pretty good.
If you only added a border to the second layer you may want to skip this step.
Add your text
Select the text tool and add the appropriate text.
A tip: To center text and the image select the appropriate text and the image layer (layer 0), then select the move tool (V) and then select align layers - center.
Finished Product :)
Now you can make the whole process into an action and create a frame with one click.
If you only added a border to the second layer then adding a drop shadow to the image layer can give nice effect. The drop shadow also works well without a border.
This method can be modified hundreds of different ways. Play around and find one that you like.
Discuss on
Digital Grin Forums.
