Trying Out Sue Chastain's Edge Masks

[Diana]

Wendy previously posted a link to Sue Chastain’s border/edge masks so I decided to try some of them.

http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/forum/showpost.php?p=145448&postcount=3

This one is “sc-edge043” and this is what I did to get this effect.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1IaqyJfNVio6ZRVQwioxG7fqtD7Ox_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1IaqyJfNVio6ZRVQwioxG7fqtD7Ox)

1.Open photo, resize, sharpen & crop
2.Open edge mask and rotate orientation if needed
3.Resize mask…this is a new tip I learned from Sue’s instructions and I just love it….While the mask image is active, Image > Resize > Image Size and while dialog box is still open, from the menu, click Window and choose the photo filename you want to apply the mask to. This resizes the mask to the same size and shape as the image.
4.Select the whole mask (Ctrl-A) and copy (Ctrl-C)
5.Go to the photo and paste the mask (Ctrl-V)
6.Invert the colors of the mask (Ctrl-I)
7.In the layer palette, change the blend mode of the mask layer to Screen.
8.While on the mask layer, press Ctrl-U for Hue/Saturation adjustment and click the colorize box.
9.Drag the Hue slider to a color you like and apply.
10.It looked pretty good at that point, but I wanted to apply some layer effects, so I used the magic wand at a tolerance of 15 and selected the black center of the mask layer and deleted it (this may not work on all the edge masks if they are too irregular).
11.Then I Ctrl-clicked the mask layer and applied Jodi’s Clear Bevel 1 (Style 3), scaled the bevel, and then applied Jodi’s Color Drop Shadow Low Green.

If any of you try any of these edge masks on your images, I'd like to see what different effects you come up with.

PS: You can get some interesting effects by using different blend modes instead of Screen. Using Difference can be interesting.

Diana

[Diana]

Here's one using the Difference blend mode:

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1QnIrnHguQ7ZVHM5PVutreefIE8ji_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1QnIrnHguQ7ZVHM5PVutreefIE8ji)

This is "sc-edge005"

Diana

[ChristineV]

Diana, those are really neat!! I really like the first one :)

Can you post the link here? I can't seem to find the link that Wendy posted and I would like to check them out.

[Diana]

Sure, here it is:

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/freedownloads/l/blframesmain.htm

Diana

[Wendy]

Hi Diana ...

Oh those both look really good ... very nice effects :)

Wendy

[ChristineV]

Thanks Diana (and Wendy) ! Some of these look really nice! I will post what I come up with if I can figure out the downloading!

[AngelicKim]

Diana, really nice pictures. Thanks for the instructions and link. Had to change weekend plans and going to Pere Marquette River (Baldwin) camping instead of the UP. I will try these out on some shots of the river and forest. I need more nature photos. :D

[Jan Ruthig]

Diana, really nice pictures. Thanks for the instructions and link. Had to change weekend plans and going to Pere Marquette River (Baldwin) camping instead of the UP. I will try these out on some shots of the river and forest. I need more nature photos. :D

Kim,
Too bad you are going to miss the UP photo ops. I was there last fall and it is so beautiful!! The fall color had just started. There are a lot of waterfall photo opportunities too. There are still a couple of photos in my gallery from that trip.

Oh well, maybe another time.


Diana,
Great images and nice techniques!!

[ChristineV]

:( You guys are making me home sick!!! I Miss the Michgan Fall!

[NMarti]

Diana
Those are really great. Thanks for sharing them.

[AngelicKim]

Jan, the waterfalls are why I wanted to go. But we decided that this weekend just isn't enough time to see anything. We are going to wait til we can take a week or longer to go. We wouldn't be able to leave til Saturday morning because our son has football practice Friday night.:(

Christine, we will make sure we take alot of fall photos to post just for you.:) Michigan in the fall is so beautiful.

[virgo1]

Jan and Kim,
We will be in Ironwood the weekend of the equinox to close on a house. We are going to retire there.:D
Eva;)

[AngelicKim]

Eva, welcome in advance to Michigan. If I recall, isn't Ironwood in the UP? Christine is really gonna go nuts :( with another person from Michigan making her home sick, :D

[Jan Ruthig]

Jan and Kim,
We will be in Ironwood the weekend of the equinox to close on a house. We are going to retire there.:D
Eva;)

It's a beautiful place to be and a retirement to REALLY look forward to!!!!! ;)

[virgo1]

Jan,
Are you familar with Little Girl's Point, a county park north of Ironwood? We go there every summer and I don't want to leave. I'm retired but hubby isn't yet, he has about 5 to go.:D
Eva;)

[Jan Ruthig]

Eva,
No, I'm not familiar with anything much past Munising. I spent a week there last fall taking pictures with a group. It was wonderful! I really look forward to going again sometime. This fall we are going to Niagra Falls. Haven't been there in probably 15 years so should have some great photo ops!!

[AngelicKim]

Its almost 1 a.m. but I just had to try this one too. scedge-043 is my favorite of them all also so I used it too. I tried different colors for the Hue but this one looked best. I added a beveled edge and a soft drop shadow.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/19Vy5YN9CZ7qsOaJutcqESMtFIvup_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=19Vy5YN9CZ7qsOaJutcqESMtFIvup)

[lindajay]

Nice, Kim! This hobby sure can cut into sleep time, can't it? :D

[ChristineV]

Ok that's it! I am going to have to read this whole thread to figure out how to do this! For some reason this one is intimidating me :eek:

[CarolLHB]

Hi Diana-thanks for sharing this-it's fun! Can you elaborate on this part?

"10.It looked pretty good at that point, but I wanted to apply some layer effects, so I used the magic wand at a tolerance of 15 and selected the black center of the mask layer and deleted it (this may not work on all the edge masks if they are too irregular)."

Do you select in the layers palette on the mask layer or on the actual image? When I tried this the center of the photo went all black.

Here's a first attempt anyway-I'm off to download a bunch of these. I think they will be fun on a bunch of projects-thanks!
http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/7010/masktestqx5.th.jpg (http://img174.imageshack.us/my.php?image=masktestqx5.jpg)

[Diana]

Hi Carol,

On the edge I used (the leaves) which was quite solid, selecting the middle of the edge layer (on the image) selected the transparent part of the layer image (transparent after applying screen layer mode) and I deleted it, although perhaps you can invert the selection and apply an effect or layer style to the selected edge without deleting the center. Some of the edges are very feathery or irregular and may be hard to select, so it may be hard to apply a style to them. Hope this isn't even more confusing. Good luck. You did a nice job on the edge of your image, by the way......yours too, Christine!

Diana

[Jan Ruthig]

Carol,

That is really nice!! At first I thought it was the band from the HS just east of us, Lowell, Michigan!! Then I saw that you are from Massachusetts. :p

[CarolLHB]

Thanks Diana, I think that the star edge is way too irregular. I'll try a more solid one. I really like these edges.

Jan-seems like there are a lot of Lowells, I passed through one somewhere on my road trip this summer-I think it was Indiana. These are my kids from Lowell High in Massachusetts-all 65 of them! Actually my real kid is front row behind the colorguard, far left with the Phantom Regiment hoodie-he's one of the drum majors this year!

[Shari]

Hi - I am having a problem with downloading these. Do I download them in the effects. That is what I did and then deleted the cashe. The name SCedge shows up in my All list but there is nothing in there to work with. Am I going crazy again???? Could someone please tell me where I download these to. Thanks you.
Shari

[kimi_boo]

Shari all I did was make a new folder in PSE and added them in the folder. When you want to use one it is just like layering 2 images. Hope this helps.

[Shari]

Thanks Kimi. I tried it. This is a card a made for a friend. He is an avid gardener. I don't like the way the edge does not really show on the left side so I may try it again - but at least I know how. Thanks.
Shari
http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/15c9o2K6gE6Sc8oQgL04viprXGwvA_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=15c9o2K6gE6Sc8oQgL04viprXGwvA)

[lindajay]

Shari, your rose it beautiful! Can you share how you did it? Oh, and I'm glad you got the edges to work for you now.

[Shari]

Thanks Linda. I just added the poster filter, added a canvas and did edge mask #37. Simple but I think Howie will like it.
Shari

[mayva]

Kimi:

For the life of me I can't quite figure out where these are to go. They are downloaded as JPG's right? So where in PSE do I put them?

Of course it's late here (1:44 am) and I am tired of messing with them so any help you could give me would be appreciated. Thanks!

Anna

[karen donnybrook]

Anna,

I don't think they go in PSE but into a file and then are accessed and used as ordinary image files.

Karen

[Diana]

Anna,

Karen's right. Just save the edge mask files to a folder anywhere you know where to find them and treat them just like any one image file. They aren't actually "installed."

Diana

[mayva]

Thanks Karen and Diana

I thought maybe I had not "installed" them correctly. Now on to how to use them.............:)

Anna