I often get asked how I manage to process my photos every single day (I've been taking a photo a day for more than a year), and one of the main reasons is that I've found a very easy and quick way in Photoshop Elements to reduce the size of the photos and add a frame and a signature.
This method of processing the photos also happens to hide the meta data of the photo, which is great if you're worried about people getting hold of the original photo from the web.
1. Create a new blank file. I make the size of the canvas 640×480 pixels, with a white background.
2. There's a function on PSE5 called "artwork and effects" that I use to create the frame (look in the palette on the right of the screen below). There are a few options available on the dropdown that appears such a backgrounds and frames and graphics etc.
This is what the screen looks like once the frame has been selected, so you can try and find the function.
3. Drag and drop a frame, in this case the black 20px onto the background. It appears as a small frame in the middle of the background. Then just resize the frame until it covers the entire background.
4. Then drag and drop and photo onto the frame. Because I started with a blank canvas, and the whole file is a PSD file and not a JPG to start with, the data from the photo being copied onto the frame is lost.
5. It then looks like this… notice that it's still a background with a frame.
6. Then add a new layer on top of this, by going to Layer -> New -> Layer. Change the layer to a text layer, by selecting the Text tool in the left tool column. Then type your signature onto the photo where you'd like it to be placed (in the font that you'd like to use). If the text is too bright, remember to change the opacity of the layer to make it a bit transparent.
And finally it looks like this…
7. Now that it's done, save the .psd file and name it a template. I've also done the same for a portrait frame template.
8. So… when you want to resize and frame a photo, all you do is drag and drop a photo onto your template and then re-save it as a jpg file. The re-saving flattens the layers, and because of the size of the template, the end result is much smaller than the original photo.
Viola… this is what it looks like in the end…
PS. Photoshop CS and CS3 doesn't work the same way because that program doesn't have preset frames, and I'll explain that in another article.
Jeanette is a South African working mother of 2 very busy boys. She's been taking a photograph every day since June 2007 and you can watch her skills improve at Photography by Jeanette.
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great post Jeanette! I have tried it your way, and I having decided if it is faster than mine or not. I think it might be.
I love this photo as well. 