There are quite a number of different ways and tricks of creating a border around your photographs in Photoshop. This tutorial shows you a couple of quick tricks and how to create a neat presentation like border in A4 size, where you can add captions underneath, and looks very professional when printed out and the picture framed.

Quick Border using Canvas Size

First, one of the more simple ways of creating a border is through making the canvas size larger than the photograph you've started out with, thus creating an instant border.

To play around with creating borders by altering the canvas size simply go to the Image drop down menu and select Canvas Size. Then alter the width and height measurements accordingly and make sure that all those arrows in the selection box are pointing outwards to create the border. Don't forget to select the appropriate background colour before you start work, as this is what the colour of the canvas border will turn out to be!

One way to using this method more accurately to create an even sized border is to increase the size of the canvas in equal measurements. For example, to create a 2cm border around your photographs simply add on 2cms for the width and height of the current canvas size.

A Presentation Border in A4 Size:

Now, here's another more sophisticated way to make a border around your photographs using an A4 size canvas, which is very handy when it comes to printing!

1. First load up the picture you plan to create a border round into Photoshop and leave it for a moment.



2. Next, Create a New white canvas; in the size of an A4 sheet of paper (29.7cm x 21cm) and for resolution choose from 240 up to 300 ppi. 240ppi is the best option if your computer is a bit low on processing power.



3. Next you'll want to put your photograph into this new canvas, to do this go back to the window of the photograph, hold down the shift key and click and drag the picture into the new canvas in the other window. Holding down the shift key whilst you drag means that the picture will fall directly into the centre of the new canvas.



4. By now you should have your picture onto the A4 size canvas, and might look a bit small. So next to resize the image to fill out the space, press Ctrl+T, or go to Edit > Free Transform from the drop down menu. Just before you go to alter the size of the photo, hold down Alt+Shift on the keyboard and then as you resize the photograph the proportions will be fixed and remain the same. Plus remember to leave enough white space to work as the border :)



5. Almost done! For a finishing touch you may want to add a line directly around the photograph, framing the photo against the white background. To do this, click onto the layer that the photograph is situated and then from the dropdown go to Edit > Stroke. Here you can choose the thickness in pixels of the border, (between 5px and 10 is a good choice) and you can also select the colour (black being classic), and if the border should sit on the outside (recommended) or inside of the photograph.

Now you should have your finished photograph framed in a nice white background! In the next article I'll take you through adding captions and other specialities to the finished picture!

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Further Reading

Adding a Border around your Photographs - Text Captions in Photoshop
This article show you how to add text captions underneath your A4 border photograph, giving a polished look to your framed photographs and a professional finish to your prints.