THIS WEEK'S POWERTIP
Beyond cheesiness: how to frame your pictures
By Ben Hochstrasser
Two weeks ago, David introduced you to an easy and inexpensive way of vignetting pictures. I, as the author of FrameFun, felt intrigued to investigate further on the colour cast issue he had raised and, while not quite able to reproduce the effect, have to agree that everyone who is vignetting images probably isn't going to be all that concerned.
The main reason for me to write FrameFun was not the vignette function. I looked for an easy way of putting a frame around a picture with a minimum effort. Photoshop and the like, while perfectly able to produce the desired result, are far from what the "accidental image manipulator" is able to remember when he/she doesn't use these products on a daily basis. So there, I sat down and started programming. Now here's how you can, using FrameFun, give your images that certain extra touch-up.
At this point I assume you have downloaded and installed FrameFun, and have read the documentation. I won't re-explain the most basic steps here, we're in the "advanced" class right now. If you haven't downloaded it yet, go get it from http://www.hochstrasser.org/delphi/FrameFun/index.html.
Foto fake
When looking at artistic photographs, I noticed that there often is a black, slightly irregular border around the image -- resulting from the film frame around the negative. Here's how to add a neat black border around your artwork:
- Select a black frame, 1 pixel wide.
- Select a blurred border, roughly 1/150 (or the absolute equivalent) wide. The border is also black.
- Apply.
- Tweak until happy and play around with various frame and border widths. Do not apply a shadow at this time.
You can see a sample of this effect in Figure A.
FIGURE A
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The picture looks as if it was taken with a traditional 35mm camera. Click picture for a larger image.
Well, that wasn't hard. While we're at it, it might be a good idea to save this setting -- we might want to re-use that later. Select Settings/Save... and click on New in the dialog. Choose a useful name, like "Black Film Border."
Enlarger frame
Now, the next thing is to add a white frame -- as if you traditionally enlarged your photo using an enlarger frame -- with a tiny black rim on the outside. Select a black frame of, say, 15 pixels and a white border of one pixel less (this will result in a one-pix black line around the white border).
Ah, you've hit apply already. Hmmm. Your nice black blurred border is gone. But you saved it, right? Okay, click Settings/Open... and select the "Black Film Border ..." entry. Re-apply.
Now instead of saving and reopening your work, simply click on "Set as original" in the result pane's context menu. Don't worry, it won't overwrite your "real" original -- it will simply copy it over to the left side.
Now re-select a black 15-pix frame and a white 14-pix border. Apply. Better, isn't it? It's a good idea to save this setting as well. We'll call it "White Border Black Rim" and you can see an example in Figure B.
FIGURE B
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This image could as well have been hand-enlarged. Click picture for a larger image.
Web cast
I am not happy yet. I want to put that picture on my Web page and want it to stand out a bit. The background colour on my Web page is slightly yellow (hex code FFFFCC), that's 255-255-204. Select a frame of this colour. Before applying, think of re-Set-as-Original your previous step.
Uncheck the "border," we don't need it. But we want a shadow. Pick a dark -- but not necessarily black -- shadow. If you have a really slow machine, you can uncheck the "blurred" box while playing around. Select a suitable shadow direction. Apply. If happy, don't forget to save this setting too, like "Yellow Border Grey Shadow." Now, you can save your image.
If you have other pictures to work with, simply open the next image, open "Settings/Open.../Black Film Border 1/100," hit Apply, click "Set as original", open "Settings/Open.../White Border Black Rim 15," re-apply, re-copy over, open the settings for "Yellow Border Grey Shadow," apply, save. If your images are of quite different size, you might want to consider using relative sizes (except for the 1-pix settings) to keep the overall appearance of the results. You can see my example in Figure C.
FIGURE C
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This is the picture I want to upload to my Web page. Click picture for a larger image.
Unfortunately, there is no way of creating "Actions" like this for batch processing. In the current version, you must first batch-process the "Black Film...", then the "White Border..." and finally the "Yellow Border..." settings.
While we're at it...
Background images can be a nice way to set the mood for a certain topic. Unfortunately a background image often doesn't blend well with written text. What if the image was just a tad brighter? Good idea; fire up Photoshop and mess around with the brightness tools. Alternatively, you can use FrameFun to do it for you. Here's how:
- Select a vignetted (but not oval) border of 1 pix width and a white frame.
- Select a light grey border colour.
- Apply.
Figure D shows an example of the image, adjusted so it'd work better as a background.
FIGURE D
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Applying a light-grey vignetted border will create a very bright picture suited for Web page backgrounds Click picture for a larger image.
Combined with a non-white frame, you can achieve truly interesting results, eventually even filtering out unwanted colour shifts, like I did in Figure E.
FIGURE E
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This photo was treated with a white frame and a dark green (0, 32, 0) vignetted border to compensate for a light blue tint. Click picture for a larger image.
Now that you know a lot more about FrameFun, go forth and have some frame fun!
Ben Hochstrasser is the author of FrameFun. He can be reached at address@hidden.
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