[fionaB]

1. Open image that you want to work on

2. Duplicate layer.

3. Turn off background layer by clicking on the small eye on the left of the layer in the layers palette.

4. Click on the layer mask Icon ( small box with circle) at bottom of layer palette to make a layer mask.

5. Add new layer

6. Select rectangular marquee tool

7. Draw box roughly in the middle of your “subject”

8. Select Paint bucket and click inside the box u have just drawn to fill with white ( make sure that the top box in the colour pickers is white)

9. go to Select > Modify >Contract

10. type in anything between 30 upwards depending on how thick you want your “frame”

11. Hit Delete on the keyboard.. then deselect the selection. You should be left with a White “Frame!”

12. got to Edit > Transform> Distort

13. Drag the corners to give the impression that the frame is sitting at an “angle” and reposition frame if necessary with part of the “subject” out of frame, hit enter when happy with position

14. Select Add Layer Mask Icon ( square with circle) again to create a mayer mask in the “frame” layer.

15. Select the brush tool and with black being the colour on the top box start to paint out the frame over the part of the subject that u want infront of the frame. If you make a mistake change the colour to white and paint it back in again.

16. Click on Add new Layer icon to make a new layer, and drag it down until it is above the original background layer.

17. Select the gradient tool in the tool bar ( shares a space with the paint bucket) then click on the shaded rectangular box in the top left of the top tool bar to open the gradient editor

18. select a gradient that you want in the image background.

19. Making sure that the empty layer above the background layer is selected, click and drag on the image from top right to bottom left. Nothing will change but you will have added a gradient which will become apparent as you work on.

20. Click on the layer mask ( white box) in the third layer up, make sure black is the top colour in the colour picker boxes and paint out the background to bring up the gradient

21. as before change the brush size and go from white to black to correct any mistakes,.

22. Make sure you have the top layer highlighted and click on the magic wand tool, this should select the gradient up to the frame, go to Select > inverse so that only the frame is selected

23. Click on add new layer icon

24. make sure black is the top colour and select the paint bucket, fill the frame so it is black

25. deselect

26. drag layer so that it is above the gradient layer

27. click on the move tool and drag the frame out so that the black moves to the back of the white frame.

28. go to Filter > Blur> Gausian blur and select an appropriate setting to blur and give a drop shadow effect.

29. Adust opacity if necessary

30. Crop to suit

31. Finished!

[Davetherave]

Have you got an example image fi so i can see what it is im trying to do

Thanks

Dave

Lovin your site and work

[fionaB]

thanx Dave.........

have a look here....

something new

[simpbow]

Cheers Fiona like to give this a try.

[Angela]

Thanks for doing this Fiona

[spacepacker]

If I have done this right, there should be a picture here.
Thanks to fionaB for her efforts!.
I know I need more practice but your comments are welcome

Oops, i've never got a pic this big on this site before,lol

[fionaB]

excellent first attempt!

[Summerleft]

Always fancied having a go at this, will try out your tute Fi

Heres my go, i think i needed to use a more solid brush on the image but otherwise quite pleased

[Wannabe]

This is SO cool!!! Going to have to try this! Thanks for the tutorial!!

[spacepacker]

Summerleft,You have done some excellent painting-out, a very good effort.
What do you mean by a more "solid brush", interested...Kenny

[spacepacker]

I've done another one, your comments are most welcome. That is if I get the pic here!.

I think maybe the frame should be larger?.

[fionaB]

i actually like that although i think some stalks on the RHS would be nice

[Summerleft]

SP thats very good, you must have patience! I posted mine on another forum and it got into the readers choice gallery

Kenny on the pony i used a soft edged brush tool to bring up the bottom layer colour, however I think a harder brush would have made her stand out more like SPs Orchids.

[BWEP]

Excellent effects have been obtained Fiona
but I especially liked Spacepackers Fuchsias since these are my favourite flower.

I will give it a try

Kind regards
Barrie x

[Pentaxbuff]

Fiona ... I cannot find this Paint Bucket tool in CS3 ... it says that it cannot be used with "bitmap" but I opened the pic under CS3 as usual, and no such Bucket is showing iin the palette on the left of the image.
What Am I doing wrong?
Thanks.

[Dabhand16]

You will find the paintbucket under one of the other tools on the RHS of the tools palette. Nearly every tool has got others underneath. Either right click on the tool, or click on the tiny black arrow in the corner of the tool icon.