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Author Topic: Adding framing to your photos in Photoshop, or, however...  (Read 17007 times)

John V.

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Adding framing to your photos in Photoshop, or, however...
« on: March 10, 2015, 11:29:53 am »

You'd think that someone would have come along by now and made a plugin (or... something...) that would allow to add nice gallery style frames around your images with abundant varieties of options, textures, color, shapes/styles. I've looked around, but I can't find anything very professional. Any ideas out there?
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Paul2660

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Re: Adding framing to your photos in Photoshop, or, however...
« Reply #1 on: March 10, 2015, 12:43:52 pm »

Actually there are several I can think of.

Fred Miranda had a framing action, which I still use at times, won't add the fancy types, but still a good action to have.  www.fredmiranda.com  I assume he is still selling his actions.  It was called fmframes

I thought OnOne had a framing plugin but I can't find it online.

Paul
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Paul Caldwell
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Dave Gurtcheff

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Re: Adding framing to your photos in Photoshop, or, however...
« Reply #2 on: March 10, 2015, 04:01:59 pm »

Not an action, but I copy and past the image on a new, larger "canvas size" in Photoshop. Examples attached.
Dave in NJ
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gchappel

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Re: Adding framing to your photos in Photoshop, or, however...
« Reply #3 on: March 10, 2015, 10:35:37 pm »

You'd think that someone would have come along by now and made a plugin (or... something...) that would allow to add nice gallery style frames around your images with abundant varieties of options, textures, color, shapes/styles. I've looked around, but I can't find anything very professional. Any ideas out there?

Look at www.shutterfreaks.com
I am in no way associated with them- just have used their mat and frame actions for years.  Endless variety.  Not free, but way less than a single print or mat.
Gary
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BradSmith

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Re: Adding framing to your photos in Photoshop, or, however...
« Reply #4 on: March 11, 2015, 04:26:39 pm »

Somewhat like Dave, I do it in Photoshop.  From LR, I "Edit In" Photoshop.  Once there, I do an image resize (no resample) to a height or width that makes sense for the frame size I'm considering, say, a 16x20 frame.  Then I do a canvas resize in white to 16x20.  This adds my white overmat.   Then I do another canvas resize, this time in black to 17x21 to add a 1/2" black frame around the image.  Save and I now have a "framed" version back in LR.  It takes about a minute and 30 seconds for the round trip.

And by the way, back in LR, I keyword this framed version as "framed" and then I have created a smart collection of all of these.  I find it to be an easy way to quickly review all of my images that I considered at one time or another for printing and framing.

Brad
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bill t.

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Re: Adding framing to your photos in Photoshop, or, however...
« Reply #5 on: March 12, 2015, 03:59:25 am »

I used to spend a lot of time making finesfull, photorealistic framing prevues in PS, complete with different lighting on the top and bottom pieces of moulding, drop shadows, you name it.  There was only one problem.  Images like that lie.  They simply don't reliably predict what your actual piece will look like in an actual installation under actual lighting.  The reality is always a surprise, no matter how "close" your approximation is.

Among other things, it is exceedingly difficult to get the visual weight of all but the plainest moulding correct, and there is a tendency to err on the side of what's pretty, rather than what's accurate.  Where one gets in the most trouble is by taking pictures of moulding obtained online, and using those in previews.  Online moulding pictures are NEVER accurate!  But if shown to a client such images can commit you to providing the unobtainable.

There are some uses of even inaccurate previews.  One is to evaluate the worthiness of a piece for presentation, albeit in the abstract.  Another is to approximate how a framed piece might look shown against a variety of colored walls, and it's surprising how poorly the newly popular white frames fare in that respect.  But be careful, don't mistake a pretty prevue for a meritorious image, the way Apple mistakes its stylish keyboard for something useful.
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Hans Kruse

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Re: Adding framing to your photos in Photoshop, or, however...
« Reply #6 on: March 12, 2015, 04:41:20 am »

You'd think that someone would have come along by now and made a plugin (or... something...) that would allow to add nice gallery style frames around your images with abundant varieties of options, textures, color, shapes/styles. I've looked around, but I can't find anything very professional. Any ideas out there?

Have a look at http://photographers-toolbox.com/products/lrmogrify2.php

John V.

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Re: Adding framing to your photos in Photoshop, or, however...
« Reply #7 on: March 12, 2015, 12:47:50 pm »

Are you wanting it for your own decision making or to show potential customers?
Personally, you're better off only offering a couple of choices to your customers. Don't give  them too many choices asit only messes with their heads and gives you headaches as well.
There IS a software program for framers that sets a camera above the table and takes a shot of the art and then you can scroll thru multiple mat and frame choices.

It isn't used by too many shops as it is cranky at times and is only as good as the lighting and the quality of the monitor.

Hit this link to their site:

http://www.lifesaversoftware.com/Products/FrameVue.aspx

 This was a response I got from framah in the  Digital Cameras & Shooting Techniques forum. I'm going to delete that thread now because it's a more appropriate topic to have here.
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John V.

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Re: Adding framing to your photos in Photoshop, or, however...
« Reply #8 on: March 12, 2015, 01:16:10 pm »

And bonus Apple jokes... Better get use to hearing those I guess. Alright, well thanks everyone. I'll let it sink in.

I perhaps had unrealistic expectations when the idea/need came to me. I was hoping there would be something that could either render or add realistic looking framing to images. Suppose as if you had a nice hi rez image of a corner sample of something, photoshop could somehow use that as a border, or at least let you create an "empty frame" using that sample, at a particular dimension, in which one could simply "place" their image into. Realistically/technically I don't see how that could work for some things, but I bet there's a way it could happen for simple things, I didn't didn't want to have to do it all manually.

This is simply for product showcasing a small collection on a website. Not to provide as a service. I just didn't want to have to get a bunch of stuff actually framed and then photograph it.
« Last Edit: March 13, 2015, 12:37:36 am by John Drew »
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TSJ1927

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framah

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Re: Adding framing to your photos in Photoshop, or, however...
« Reply #10 on: March 13, 2015, 11:25:24 am »

Thanks John!!! I was wondering  where I posted that!!

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bill t.

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Re: Adding framing to your photos in Photoshop, or, however...
« Reply #11 on: March 14, 2015, 12:51:18 am »

This reminds me that there are some matte simulating actions out there that can make faux mattes around your images that are extremely realistic looking.   Printed on smooth matte papers seen behind glass you can barely tell whether the matte is faux or real, as long as the lighting direction on the physical framed piece more or less matches the direction of lighting on the faux matte.  Of course real photographers don't need no stinkin' mattes.
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bill t.

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Re: Adding framing to your photos in Photoshop, or, however...
« Reply #12 on: March 14, 2015, 02:46:56 am »

Here's an old thread that shows the basic Photoshop scheme for slapping a frame around an image.  You make an L out your moulding sample image through duplication and maybe some left to right flipping etc, then duplicate that L and flip it 180 degrees on a second layer.  Maneuver the two L's into position and "miter" the overlapping corners.

http://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=67087.msg530835#msg530835

You can take it as far as you want, depending on the worthiness of your client.

http://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=35350.msg289503#msg289503


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sniper

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Re: Adding framing to your photos in Photoshop, or, however...
« Reply #13 on: March 14, 2015, 06:59:07 am »

There used to be loads of free framing actions on action central, don't know if the sites still going though. If not pm me and I'll have a look at what I've got tucked away somewhere, I woll have the ones I got from there saved.
Regards Wayne
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zippski

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Re: Adding framing to your photos in Photoshop, or, however...
« Reply #14 on: April 06, 2015, 07:52:46 pm »

One of the best framing apps you can use out there is, believe it or not, Google Picasa.   I use it all the time to make 3D photorealistic frames for web display, and for prints it also works great.  There are all sorts of frames actions included such as drop shadows, museum matts, and text border extensions.  With a little practice, you easily can really mimic 3D frames/matts in a few seconds and with only a few clicks.  Best of all, it's FREE.  

Strange how some free programs work 100% better than something you need to shell out big bucks to buy.

Here's one I just did last night:



Leigh
zippski

« Last Edit: April 06, 2015, 08:04:27 pm by zippski »
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John V.

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Re: Adding framing to your photos in Photoshop, or, however...
« Reply #15 on: April 08, 2015, 09:45:20 am »

Oh wow, I wonder why that never came up in my search results. You;d think a google product would get some sort of favoritism lol.
« Last Edit: April 08, 2015, 09:55:35 am by John Drew »
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