Articles : Tutorials - Digital

 Choose a photo that has an object (or objects) that you want to POP.   I’ll refer to this as the “target object” from here on out. 

 

I’m going to use this photo.

  

I want to POP out both flowers (on both sides) and some of the top.  The flowers, then, are my target object.

 

The first step is to crop the photo close to the target object.    Here's how it looks after I've cropped around the flowers. 

 

Create a new page for your layout. I prefer doing the next few steps on a white or transparent background, just so that I can see the details. You can add in your background paper(s) later.

 

Next, find a frame to use.  I like to use one with equal size borders.  Shadow or not - doesn't matter... you can add one later.

 

Now that you have the perfect frame, place it on a layer over your photo and line it up with the bottom edge of the photo (or whatever edge opposite of the area that you are POPping. Lower the opacity so that you can see the details of your photo underneath the frame. With the focus on the frame layer, use the pick tool and change the mode to perspective (in Paint Shop Pro Photo) to skew the frame a bit by selecting the corner handle and nudging it in a bit.   (In PSE 4.0, Image>Transform>Distort. In DIP, drop down the effects menu, choose skew object, and then use the four handles to manipulate.)

 

With the focus still on the frame layer, use the eraser tool to erase the areas of the frame that are on top of the target object. I like to zoom in to do this step so that I can get really close to the edges . Once you’ve erased these pieces, you can change the opacity back to 100%.  Here's how mine looks now...

Now change your focus to the photo layer. Using your background eraser tool, erase right around the target object like this...

 

 

 

Once you are happy with the “extraction” step, you can change back to your eraser tool and clean up everything else that remains of the background outside of the frame. Remember, you don’t have to be exact with the areas that the frame covers! Nobody will see that! 

 

 It should be looking pretty good now, but we’ve a couple more steps to go.

 

You’ll want to add a shadow to your photo layer.   I set the blur to 100% and opacity to 75% to make it really POP off the page, but you’ll want to play with it to make it work for you. (Note, if the frame that you are using does not have a shadow, you’ll want to add a shadow to the frame as well before moving on to the final step.

 

Now, group and merge the frame and photo layers. You’re ready to finish your layout!

 

Here’s mine: 

 

It’s time for you to show me what you can do!