How to Create a Grunge Border ~ Enhance Photography Skill

You can bring life to your image by creating a grunge border and placing it around your desired photo in Photoshop. Grudge borders are created by using edgy lines or spiky straight lines. You can paint spikes that lift out of the border lines you create. Once you have created several lines, you can then take a snapshot and place these thick, jagged lines around your photo. In Photoshop, it's simple to place borders around your images.

Instructions

Squeeze out a small amount of black paint on a blank white sheet of paper. Don't put the paint on too thick.

Dab a piece of wood or a paint brush into the black paint and paint thick straight lines on the paper. Create rough edges while making the lines using the piece of wood. Create four, rough-edge border lines on the paper underneath each line.

Snap a photo of the grunge borders you just created. Set your camera on "Exposure Compensation" and around +1 to +2 stops. Upload your photo to your computer.

Launch Photoshop. Go to "File" and then "Open." Open the file you wish to place the border effect on and then click "Open." Your photo will appear on the canvas.

Scroll to the left side of your screen and click the "Layers" tab. At the bottom of the "Layers" tab, click the sixth icon out of seven icons to create a "New Layer." The new layer will appear on the top of the photo layer you just opened.

Fill the new layer with a gray color. Scroll to "Edit" on the top of your screen and click "Fill." A dialog box will appear. Under "Contents," choose "50% Gray" and click "OK." The color gray will fill the entire layer.

Scroll to file and then click "Open." Open the border photo you just created on a sheet of paper. The photo will appear on a different tab from the other photo.

Remove any color cast that may appear in the border photo. Scroll to "Image," "Adjustments" and then "Desaturate."

Choose one of the borders you painted using the "Rectangular Marquee Tool" (M) and then scroll to "Edit" and then "Copy."

Click the other photo tab to jump back to the original photo. Scroll to "Edit" and then "Paste." The border will appear on the gray background color.

Pull the border to the bottom edge of the photo. You just created your first border. Remove the white that is around the black border from the paper by strolling to the "Layers" tab and use the drop-down box to select "Multiply." The white will be totally removed.

Copy the border layer under the "Layers" tab. Right-click the border layer and click "Duplicate layer." Select the copied border layer and then pull the copied border at the top of the photo image. This is your second border around your image.

Create your side borders around your image. Click the canvas with your four painted borders. Select one of the borders to copy and paste on the image on the other canvas. Scroll to "Edit" and then "Free Transform." Place your mouse on the side of the border and spin the border so it will fit the sides of the gray canvas. Duplicate the layer for the border you just transformed and drag the border to the other side of the canvas.

Remove the white background from the side borders by selecting "Multiply" for the side borders under the "Layers" tab on the right corner of your screen.

Merge all layers together except for the actual image. Under the "Layers" tab, select the top layer and then click "Shift" and click the gray layer. All layers will be highlighted. Scroll to the "Layer" on the top of your screen and click "Merge Layers." Now you only have two layers you are working with.

Change the bend mode from "Normal" to "Overlay" using the drop-down box under the "Layers" tab on the right of your screen. A grunge border effect will appear on the image. Adjust the "Opacity of the border under the "Layers" tab and you're done.