St. Valentine's Special: Making an Awesome Heart Frame
This tutorial shows a quick and easy way to make hilarious frames around a photo. Instead of drawing the frame by hand which would be too long and tedious, we'll use the Filter Forge plug-in that will make the frame automatically. We'll aim at the following result:
Prerequisites:
A photo or an image to enclose in the frame. This tutorial uses a photo from iStockphoto
Adobe Photoshop (CS3 used in the tutorial)
Filter Forge 2.0 plug-in (http://www.filterforge.com/download/)
Step 1 - Preparing the Image
Open the source image in Photoshop. Convert the Background to a layer and name it "Photo".
As we're planning to make a heart-shaped frame, the square image looks more appropriate. We're using an image sized 600?600 px as an example: select Image > Canvas Size... and specify the required size:
Step 2 - Creating a Selection
Now we need to set the frame shape using the Custom Shape Tool in Photoshop (
). Make sure the shape doesn't stretch beyond the image. Place the shape layer under the Photo layer, then Alt+click between these layers to create a clipping mask. This shows us which part of the image will be put into the frame.
Now that we see the final shape we'll duplicate the Photo layer and Alt+click between the Photo and Photo copy layers to release the clipping mask. Then select the Photo copy layer and Ctrl+click the shape:
You can use your favorite way to create a selection - you just need to get a heart-shaped selection as the result. Make sure the Photo copy layer is selected.
Step 3 - Using Filter Forge
Launch Filter Forge 2.0 Beta by selecting Filters > Filter Forge > Filter Forge 2. We need to use the filter named Glowing Hearts Frame: right-click the link below to save the filter to your computer, then double-click the saved file. The filter will be loaded into Filter Forge and is ready to use.
We can use the factory settings (on the Presets tab) if we don't feel like playing with the parameters:
Alternatively, we can fine-tune the filter appearance by choosing the parameters manually (on the Settings tab).
When you are satisfied with the results, click Apply. Wait until the filter is applied to your selection. That's all!
