How to creat a digital photo mat with Photoshop

[ThiNguyen]

The title says it all. I am trying to put together a large family portrait with multiple smaller images for a client. Instead of repeat the same work over again with another client I am trying to create a digital photo mat in Photoshop. I can put the mat in one of the layer and manipulate/align the images on other layers until I get what I want. Flatten all the layers into one image and then print it.

I have the idea but don't know how to go about to create the digital photo mat. Any PS guru out there can give me some pointers. Thank you in advance.

Thi

[prncfarquad]

I will be interested in seeing replies to this as well. Some of the framing or mats people do on here are incredible and mine look really bad.

[Sonny]

can you show us an example?

[Arnor]

Hi Thi,

I created some simple action stuff in PS CS2 few years ago that you can download from http://www.itakefotos.com/downloads.php It might give you an idea:) You can see an example of it at http://www.itakefotos.com/examples/Monarch800m.jpg

Best regards,

[jeffkohn]

Originally Posted by ThiNguyen

The title says it all. I am trying to put together a large family portrait with multiple smaller images for a client. Instead of repeat the same work over again with another client I am trying to create a digital photo mat in Photoshop. I can put the mat in one of the layer and manipulate/align the images on other layers until I get what I want. Flatten all the layers into one image and then print it.

I have the idea but don't know how to go about to create the digital photo mat. Any PS guru out there can give me some pointers. Thank you in advance.

Thi

What you're describing sounds a little different than just a mat around a single photo so I'm not sure, maybe if you can find an example that would help.

Creating mats in PS is pretty easy, it's just a matter of expanding the canvas of your image with a given color, then adding some stroking or using some of the layer styles such as drop-shadow, embossing, etc. Once you figure out what you want, recording it as an action should be too difficult. If you go to a site like ATN Central you can probably find some ready-made actions that you can use as a starting point, or to see how they work.

[Sonny]

Thanks for the memory jog, Arnor. I remembered this script I used back during Photoshop CS & CS2. It's been updated for CS3 & CS4.


Thi,

You should also ckeck Mike's Framing Scripts

[ThiNguyen]

Thank you for the info. What I am trying to do is to build a digital version of a collage mat. Something like what is shown in the link below.

http://www.matshop.com/products/mats...llage_mat.html

I want to be able to put the mat on one layer, images on other layers and just drag them to line them up in the openings.

Thi

[fstops]

These steps are a bit over simplified but it'll give you an idea

1- create a new document to the size you need
2- add a new layer
3- select this layer and fill it with color of your choice (you can add texture also)
4- use marquee tool (rectangle or oval depending on you needs) to "cut-out" the openings
5- add photos and size them accordingly (make sure they are under the "matt" layer)