Dark Border

A smooth border, that really fits with the image...

This tutorial is part of a series of tutorials on Photoshop Borders.

Borders are usually either very separate from the image they surround, or very linked. If you want a border that really flows from your image, what better way to achieve this than to use part of the picture for the border!

Here, we'll create a darkened edge to the image, to give it a smooth and fitting border very easily. This is the example image I'll be using:

The Steps

Let's get started then. I'll first take you through the basic technique, and then I'll discuss some variations:

1. Open a picture - Pull up the file that you want to give a dark border to.

2. Create a new layer - Always add borders on a new layer so they can be easily changed or removed later on.

3. How to select the edge - Those of you who are familiar with Photoshop may question the next few steps, as the "Select All, Stroke Selection" approach may seem quicker. The reason we are not doing that is that sometimes you will want dark borders wider than 250 pixels (The limit of the stroke function), so we'll take a different approach.

4. Select the Rectangle Marquee tool - Pick the Rectangle Marquee tool from the toolbar, and then set the options in the option bar. Feather should be set to '0 px', Mode should be set to 'Fixed Size', and then we'll set the Width and the Height options.

5. Decide on the size of the border - Often quite wide borders work well, but this is up to you. If I want a border 200 pixels wide, I will now pick '200 px' for the width, and '1000 px' for the height. Later on we'll swap these over.

6. Start selecting - Click on the left hand side of the image to select a portion of the image 200 pixels wide. Then hold the 'Shift' key, and keep clicking up and down the left hand side until it is all selected. Repeat this on the right hand side.

7. Swap the dimensions - Now make the height '200 px' and the width '1000 px'. Now you can select the top and bottom edges of the image in the same way. You should have now selected the entire edge of the image.

8. Fill the area - Fill the area you have selected with color using the Paint Bucket tool. Black works well here, or perhaps a very dark shade of a color related closely to the image. For my example image, I would use either black, or very dark green. This should give you a standard line border, as shown:

9. Set the opacity of the border layer - Using the Layer palette, set the opacity of the new border layer to somewhere between 50% and 90%. I usually find 75%-80% works best, but it always depends on the image and border color. Now the image looks like this:

10. You could stop here - If you like this effect, and if it works for your image, then you're finished! Often though, this still looks a little bit sharp, so let's soften it up.

11. Apply a Gaussian Blur - Select 'Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur' from the menu. You'll want to set the 'Radius' setting according to the width of your border. A third of the border size is a good starting point, so 100 pixels for a 300 px border, or 65 pixels for a 200 px border, and so on. Adjust as you like though, and then click 'Ok'.

12. You should be done - That should be it! The image should now look something like this:

Variations

Now I like the above border; I think it's elegant and smooth, but there are other options available to you.

This particular border has heaps of variations. Let me show you two, very briefly:

Shadow Lines

If you stopped at step 10, and ended up with the flat edged border, why not try adding some shadow lines to it?

Simply create another layer above the border layer, and use the Pencil tool to draw two white edges, and two black edges onto the border. Alter the layer opacity until it looks subtle, and you have a 3D dark border! It should look like this:

Varying the Faded Dark Border

Shadow lines work well if you stopped at the hard edged border, but what if you preferred the faded look? I have a variation for you too!

Remember when we used the marquee tool to select the border area? Well this time, we'll do that slightly differently. Reset the Marquee tool mode back to 'Normal', so it's no longer 'Fixed Size'.

Now on the new layer, select some random rectangles round the edge of the image. Don't make them line up or anything! When you've covered a reasonable amount of the edge, fill the selection with black.

Now create another layer, and restart the selection process. Pick more random rectangles, make them overlap! Make them smaller, larger, thinner, fatter. Be varied! Then fill this selection with black too!

You can decrease the opacities of the layers so it's easier to see what you're doing, but you want to end up with three or four layers with these random black rectangles. I've shown my layer thumbnails below, so you can see what I mean:

Set the opacities to anything you like really, whatever looks good. Generally around 40% works well. It depends entirely on your rectangles though.

You may be thinking "That looks ugly! What's he doing??". Don't worry, it'll all come together. Trust me! :)

Now, you'll want to merge the rectangle layers. The easiest way to do this is to hide the background layer, and then pick 'Layer - Merge Visible', to combine all your rectangle layers.

The final step is to apply a 'Gaussian Blur', using 'Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur'. Again, the amount is up to you and your rectangles, but you're looking to smooth them out until they just blend into the image, and give a nice, varied, darkened border look.

To illustrate what you're aiming for, I've shown my version below, as well as the rectangles without the background for clarity:

I hope you like those ideas on dark borders. Like I say, there really are numerous variations you can use, so experiment! Try out new things, and discover what works and what doesn't.

Want to read more Photoshop Border tutorials? Visit the Main Page.

Kind Regards

Robert Redwood Robert Redwood - Bio
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