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This is a pretty slick technique that I saw in the current issue of one of the photo magazines I subscribe to. I was pleased to see that it was already up on their website:
http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/colu ... x-mat.html

Although this is a Photoshop tutorial, everything works exactly the same in Elements except for part of step #6. Apparently Photoshop provides more adjustment control than I was able to find in PSE7. That's not a big deal -- I was able to change the shadow angle and compensated for the inability to adjust distance and size by simply adding noise to that "stroke".

Rusty
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness" - Dave Barry

If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough. - Robert Capa

www.prestophoto.com/photos/gallery/19932
The hardest thing about creating this mat is deciding on what color to use for the "inside stroke". It is easy to adjust because, if you followed the instructions, your top layer will contain nothing except that colored stroke.
Faux Mat - How.jpg
Faux Mat - How.jpg (115.1 KiB) Viewed 4665 times


If you Control Click that layer thumbnail only the "stroke" is selected. Go back to your foreground color picker and start adjusting: Edit > Fill Selection > Foreground Color. Keep at it until you end up with something that pleases you.

Here's an example, I went through three looking for what I wanted:
Faux Mat.jpg
Faux Mat.jpg (139.79 KiB) Viewed 4665 times


Rusty
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness" - Dave Barry

If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough. - Robert Capa

www.prestophoto.com/photos/gallery/19932
Rusty: Thanks for the tut. That was fun and very educational for me. I went through the steps quickly and came up with the photo below; however, I like yours much better, so I will try again. Right now I have to go someplace, so my next try will be this afternoon.

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Russ, that's a nice 'inside stroke' but it looks like you missed the very last step, #7. That is what puts the wide white border outside of that 'inside stroke' and brings it up to the final size with a finished look.

Rusty
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness" - Dave Barry

If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough. - Robert Capa

www.prestophoto.com/photos/gallery/19932
Rusty wrote: Russ, that's a nice 'inside stroke' but it looks like you missed the very last step, #7. That is what puts the wide white border outside of that 'inside stroke' and brings it up to the final size with a finished look.
Rusty


Rusty, thanks for the tip. If I find some time tomorrow I will give it another try. Thursday I'm having knee surgery, so, after my surgery, I'll have lots of time over the next few weeks.
Here's my second try at the tut. Again I want to thank you for the tut - Russ

After looking at it I think it would look better with a drop shadow instead of the black stroke. I'll see if I'm able to do that.

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Here it is with a drop shadow. Which one do you like best?

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I think it looks much better with the additional white canvas extension. As far as the slight drop shadow vis-a-vis the simple stroke ... hard to pick one over the other; I like both.

Rusty
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness" - Dave Barry

If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough. - Robert Capa

www.prestophoto.com/photos/gallery/19932
Here's my try. The black on the outside is so my daughter can see what it looks like with a simple frame - her wishes. :bigwink:


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That's nice, Carol
You gotta have the black frame ... give the customer what she wants!

Rusty
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness" - Dave Barry

If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough. - Robert Capa

www.prestophoto.com/photos/gallery/19932
Thanks for the nice tutorial, Rusty. Of course I had to pick a photo of a certain little guy to post. :)

Anita

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