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inacom — Choosing a Border
Published: 2009-05-25 22:42:04 +0000 UTC; Views: 5677; Favourites: 64; Downloads: 177
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Description
Beware the full sized file: it's 1Mb large!This is a tutorial about choice of a border/mat for a photograph. It also explains how to add a border with Photoshop. Parts:
1. Mood -- adding a border in order to emphasize the mood of your picture
2. a Missing Tone -- for photographs with mainly extreme black and white, or no black at all, or no white at all etc
3. Pushing it forward/backwards -- using a basic rule of composition
4. Shape -- most useful and most difficult criterion
5. a Detailed Example
Pictures used as examples:
1. [link] 2. [link] 3. [link] 4. [link] 5. [link] 6. [link]
I just wanted to write a tutorial, and since I consider borders as a very useful tool - here it is! Hope it's useful
MOAR TUTORIALS:
BW photography with Photoshop [link] Project 'Third Eye' [link] : articles aimed at stimulating creativity by training your eye to grasp composition more effectively, or by suggesting unusual approaches to art.
Related content
Comments: 30
This tutorial has been added to our gallery at your request! You can find it here - [link]
Thank you for submitting! We hope you continue to submit to us in the future!
~TipsAndTricks
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helpful and very good tutorial
tho, myself, I always add white border
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Man, you are a genius! thanks for sharing your knowledge
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this tutorial is really good- I hadn't added borders before because I didn't know what to do with them, but I think I might do next time
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I'm glad that it's useful!
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great tutorial, I've been meaning to try adding frames to my photos. thanks for this!
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Here is a link to that show...there were other interesting comments about framing.
[link]
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another thing: imo a great shot would look great without a frame too.
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Here is what I have said and will say again here about this subject to a fellow devartist Shadehunter666 who featured a photograph of mine is one of his journal shows called to "Frame or Not to Frame."
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First off let me say that I feel honored that you have chosen one of my pieces to be included in this show. A show that I must say is very impressive. So many varied styles all exceptional in their realm.
Secondly, I am glad that you quantified one of the main reasons for this show with your statement... "first of all to promote new best deviations found this week..."
When I first read the title of the show I said to myself...wtf...I'm only in it because my image has been framed...thankfully that was not the only reason.
The reason I frame all my images is because I think that presentation is everything. From a table setting, to how food looks when offered, personal hygiene, how we dress and on and on.
Framing does not make a picture prettier or for that fact, uglier. It simply completes the package. I remember an art show we had in high school (in the USA high school is for 14-17 year olds) and the art was put up on a wall with THUMBTACKS...paintings, sketches, photographs...none framed or even overmatted...just thumbtacks. To me it looked...well it looked TACKY. In the end the art did speak for itself of course...but a sadder looking initial first glimpse I would be hard pressed to find.
Art and Photography is a continual process. Since I am a photographer only (the only thing I can paint is my house) I will use the chain of events for our process. First we decide what it is we want to photograph...then we choice a lens....camera exposure...lighting...depth of field...shutter speed....click. The we upload to our computers the "day's work." In the old days...we ran into the darkroom....wound the film onto reels...processed the negatives...hung 'em to dry...contact sheeted them and then the magic began....hmmm...wtf do we have here...circle some fav and then enlarge...sometimes using 20 sheets of 8x10 photo paper till the image was almost perfect...an elusive dream...even today with photoshop...nothing is perfect. Today the darkroom is a "lightroom" computer screen and the magic is now called post-production. Either way the goal is to produce a piece of art that expresses how you "see."
When mom says she likes a particular photo...do you just hand it to her and say frame it yourself? No you present her with the complete package...and by doing that, you get hung on the wall as opposed to the refrigerator. Or worse yet...the round file (trash can.)
As Japaslavian touched on about the green color used by DevA...a green that I find putrid...I decided to begin to fame...actually over mat...my work for visual appeal to me first and hopefully others.
In conclusion I'd like to say that since these are our "virtual gallerys" we should make it as pleasing a trip for any patron who cares to visit. What "real" gallery has any of us walked into that did not frame the art hung on the walls?
Presentation is everything. So present yourself compeltely
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I totally agree!
do you think I should correct my text and write "frame" instead of "border"?
a more general question: you mention traditional darkroom vs photoshop. what are you thoughts about it? have you ever worked in a traditional darkroom? (I guess you did)
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duh yeah 
I loved and still love the darkroom over the lightroom.
No border is more correct for what you have shown. Nice workshop by the way
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that's really cool 
I had the opportunity to work in one too at high school, but at that time I wasn't passionate enough to fully appreciate it.
thanx
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That's understandable...no one wants to be in the dark for their HS years...
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I did... got some sleep in there
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Thanks. I've been taking a lot of urbex / industrial B&W photos and it turned out that many of them could look better if I added a frame
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