Fine art can mean a whole lot of different things, but here I’m just going to show how to turn a colour image into a simple graphic composition that could work quite nicely when you hang it on your wall. There are two things you need in order for this to work. One is an […]
Borders and frames
Borders and frames are a great way to 'finish' off a picture for printing or display, and they've come a long way since the unconvicing fake 'wooden' frames (and others) that you get in entry-level programs like Photoshop Elements.
A solid black keyline against a white border can really finish off a black and white image, for example, enclosing the space so that the picture feels fully contained and doesn't just drift off to nothingness at he edge of the frame.
More and more programs, though, are adding roughened, distressed and antique border effects that can give digital images a worn and hand-crafted look. My own favourites are negative or filmstrip borders that make your pictures look like unmounted transparencies or large format slides.
They're not fooling anyone of course, but they nevertheless echo the feel of traditional analog materials and can help give your pictures an ambience and a feel that's so often missing in the clinical accuracy of digital imaging.