Kodak moments
I’m not a huge fan of scrapbooking, so it seems a bit ironic that people are constantly asking me to come up with ways to make digital images look like photos in an album. So today I’ll show you how to add a border to your digital picture so it looks like a classic Kodak print, and while we’re at it, include the basic drop shadow for a 3D effect.
The first image in this post, a photo of my niece and nephew, is the final product—complete with the border and a drop shadow. The second is the original photo, to provide a sense of the before and after.
Tools:
- Photoshop or Photoshop Elements
Supplies:
- digital image
Make it:
- Open the image, and make a duplicate (Command/Control + A) on it’s own layer (Command/Control + J)
- Expand the canvas so your picture has room to grow: From the Image menu, select Canvas Size. Check the Relative box, set the canvas extension color to white, and increase the width and height by a few inches each
- From the fx menu at the bottom of the layers pallet, choose Stroke. From the Layer Style dialog box, set the position on the inside, blend mode to Normal, and choose a light gray color as the fill.
- Before you close this dialog box, add a drop shadow: Click the drop shadow item on the left pane, set the Blend Mode to normal, and play with the distance and size settings until you get a shadow you like. Adjust the angle, too, if you want. I used a Distance of 10 px and a Size of 20 px and set the angle to 137 degrees.
- Click OK, and you’re done!
- Repeat as desired to give all your digital photos a “scrapbook-y” feel.
