Digital Matte

[joethedestroyer]

I've noticed a lot of you put backgrounds behind your images to give them a pleasant border. I just wanted to know whether you saved a PSD file as a template with the relevant size/watermark in place and then just drop new photos in, center align them and save as <blank>, or if there was a streamlined way of doing this that does all the workflow for you?

 

[Bifurcator]

There's several commercial plug-ins and lots and lots of free scripts that will do borders.

It's not hard to do manually either tho. Just do a canvas resize and use the fill tool and you're done.

 

[NateWagner]

yeah, I just made an action in PS that'll do it in a heart beat... automatically resizes the photo and adds the white and black borders. pretty sweet really. I'm sure it'll improve but yeah... not too tough.

 

[joethedestroyer]

Thanks guys.

How do you "make an action" like that? If you guys have any links, I'd appreciate it.

 

[Johnboy2978]

I created an action as well. It's pretty easy to do in photoshop. You basically go into actions and start recording. When you've completed all the steps necessary for the effect, click stop and you're done. Next time you need it, just go into actions and play the one you made. Viola.

 

[NateS]

I have a gimp plugin. It takes me about 5 seconds with that plugin to add the border I want.