Vera,

Walnut frame / white canvas mat and frame actions are popular, but I cringe when I see one. More often than not the wood tone of the frame does not complement the tones in the photo, and the glaring white mat around the photo competely overpowers it.

I've always used the method you outline, with minor variation, to mat and frame in Photoshop. I use a highlight color from the center of interest for the rule, but for the mat I'll sample a shadow tone in the photo, then kick it down notch in color picker so it is slightly darker than the shadows. Sampling the mat color from the predominant shadow tone of the photo helps the viewer's eye find the shadow detail, just as the rule color helps key the eye to find that color in the center of interest

To go one step further and add a bevel frame, simply do the following:

Create new layer, select all, pick black or deep shadow tone from photo, stroke inside 15-20 pixels (depending on photo size), add function adjustment layer to new layer, select bevels, adjust width and depth to taste.

Function of the mat and frame...

The goal in any photograph should be to draw the viewer's eye to the center of interest, then to any secondary objects of interest, then back to the center of interest, always keeping the eye within the borders of the photograph. There are many factors which attact the viewer's eye, but first and foremost is contrast. In a predominantly dark photo (low key) the eye will be drawn first to the brightest object in the field of view. In a predominantly light field of view the eye will search for and find the darkest object first. You can control where the viewer's eye goes in the photo by controlling the tonality of various objects in the photo. By making the primary center of interest in a low key photo the brightest thing in the frame you almost guarentee the viewer's eye will be drawn to it immediately. It eye will then search and find each succesively brighter object, so to make the eye travel from A to B to C to D in the frame you'd want to make A the brightest, B the next brightest, C slightly darker than B, and so on. This principle was taught to me 30 years ago during a job interview with a master photographer, and it is probably the most important "rule" of composition I learned. See http://super.nova.org/stories/Monte.html

The function of the mat and frame should be to extend the visual field and add non-distracting negative space. This serves to keep the viewer's eye in the photo. A perfect example of how and why a mat works is a landscape with dark foreground and an empty expanse of sky at the top of the frame. Unmatted, the viewer eye will be attracted by the dominant bright sky up and out of the frame. Adding a dark mat around the photo prevents this two ways: 1) the dark border will "bounce" the eye back into the photo, and; 2) the dark negative space of the mat makes the area of bright sky smaller, relative of the overall mat + photo visual field.

Chuck Gardner
























Vera wrote:
>
> To me this is the simplest of all frames and on some images it is
> all thats needed.
> make sure your layer is duplicated (cant work on the background
> layer) go to edit stroke and pick a foreground colour from your
> pic. about 8 pixels
>
> then make a new layer drag it below this one. go to image canvas
> resize. add a percentage or a new measurement to the size. then
> pick a foreground colour and fill with edit fill or just click on
> the bucket and fill. If you want you can use a filter> texturizer
> for either the picture layer, the matte or both.
>
>
> http://www.pbase.com/image/17356007.jpg
> --
> Vera