Photoshop Creative

Heres an interesting way to make a quick "grunge border"

http://tutorials.watchandlearnphotoshop ... order.html

Linda, thanks for the link. I have bookmarked it for later. Don't have time right now. Just popped in to see whats going on tonight.

Simple and effective! Thanks for sharing.

never tried quick mask mode?
Thanks for the link!!

If you do ctrl J to put it on it's own layer. you have a border to reuse?
Gonna give it a try.

The tutorial is using PhotoShop. How does this work in elements? How do you do a quick mask?

ezonice wrote: The tutorial is using PhotoShop. How does this work in elements? How do you do a quick mask?

Here is how I would do it in Elements. This effect is based on the distortion effect on the inner black rectangle. Once you have achieved your effect, you want to erase the white parts on the border.
So:
1- add a levels adjustment layer (any kind of adjustment layer with a mask will work the same)
2- The layer mask is on the right of the levels icon: to bring it in the workspace, Alt click within the mask and you have a white screen. Draw your rectangle and fill it with black. Deselect (Ctrl D)
3- run the filter as explained in the video
4 - with the magic wand (with continuous not checked) select a white part, you'll see the marching ants
5 - click on your layer underneath and then menu edit/fill selection with white.
6 - the adjustment layer and its mask can then be deleted.

To answer your question, there is no quick mask in Elements (I'll have to check the add-on Elements plus by Andrei Dubrowski, I think he has one). The usual ways to work with masks in Elements with regular layers is to use third-party add-ons (Grant, Grafi, Hiddenelements...) or to hijack an adjustment layer mask. This has been explained in the forum, if someone need this, please ask).

Oh, and I forgot to say welcome to this forum

Here is a shorter way to do it.
1- add a white layer over your background
2- select the rectangle and fill it with black
3- Apply your ocean ripple filter and maybe others...
4- Set this layer blend mode to lighten...

MichelB - I tried this effect with your last "easier way" post. When I apply the filter, for some reason it has a gradient type fill on it. The lower right corner has the deepest effect and the upper left corner has almost none. I didn't use any type of gradient setting. Can you tell me how to get this effect uniformly across my selected area? Thanks.

Michel, I am having the same problem as Click. Heavier on the top and right side and almost nothing on the bottom and left side.