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This lesson demonstrates how to create oval/circular photographic edges using Photoshop’s Distort filters. The image I am working with (Tynemouth’s North Pier by Peter Scarth) can be found Here. Unzip the file and open it onto Photoshop’s workspace.
Undo and Navigation Steps
Two ways of undoing steps are from the top menu, Edit then Step Backwards. Alternatively, click a previous snapshot in the History Palette.
Navigate (zoom in and pan) your image using the Navigator Palette,
or the Zoom Tool. 
Activate The Hand Tool by tapping the Spacebar, keeping the Spacebar pressed, pan your image in the usual way. 
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Open your start image onto Photoshop’s workspace.
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Then open a New document with the following attributes. Utilise a resolution of your
choice.
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Ensure the Foreground colour is set to Black.
Tip
Set the default Foreground and Background (Black and White) colour swatches by pressing your keyboard’s D key.
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Then activate the Paint Bucket Tool. 
And left-click to fill your transparent canvas with Black. 
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Activate the Elliptical Marquee Tool.
And set the following attributes into the Elliptical Marquee Tool’s Options bar. Ensure New Selection is active.
Now, drag an oval shape onto the black canvas. To constrain the oval to a circle, first press the Shift key of the keyboard, then drag the circle. Your canvas will now have an oval/circular selection marquee.
Moving the selection
After you have applied the marquee, left-click inside it and drag the marquee to a central position. Alternatively, from the top menu, choose Select then choose Transform Selection. A vector bounding box will surround your oval, enabling adjustments similar to the Free Transform Command.
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From the top menu, choose Select then choose Inverse.
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Now, change the Foreground colour to White by pressing your keyboard’s X key.
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Then activate the Paint Bucket tool, and left-click within the selected border outside the oval, as illustrated below.
And your oval frame will fill with white.
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From the top menu, choose Filter then Distort then Glass. I set the following Blocks, attributes - however, for personal results, experiment with different glass settings.
Scaling is set to 50%.
Tip
Whilst the marquee remains active, experiment with different filters to create your edges - especially the Distort filters.
Tip
You can modify the white oval with the Brush Tool. To do so, ensure the Foreground colour is set to White then paint (with white) to personalise the edge’s appearance. Bear in mind, your photograph will show through black, whilst white pixels will hide it.
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When you like the look of your edge, from the top menu, choose Select then choose Deselect. This removes the marquee. (Ctrl then D).
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Now, activate the Move Tool. 
then left-click, and drag the oval edge onto your photograph.
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Depending on the size of your photograph, the edge will either be too large, or too small - my edge is too large. To resize the edge to fit the photograph, (ensure the edge layer is active) then from the top menu, choose Edit then choose Free Transform. Your edge will immediately be surrounded with a transformation box.
By manipulating the tiny rectangle boxes that surround the transformation box, you are able to reposition and resize your edge, so it fits the photograph, exactly. Lesson Here!
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If necessary, activate the Crop Tool,  and crop your images to size.
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Ensure the oval edge is active in the Layers palette, and change its Mode from Normal to Screen. Changing the Mode to Screen, renders black pixels, transparent.
 
Tip
If you wish to reuse this edge, save the white oval as a PSD file. You can then apply it to any image you wish - at a later date.
Fading the white edge
To fade your white edge, from the Layers palette, lower the edge’s Opacity.
Note
If you notice an oval outline, such as the following.
Activate the Eraser Tool, Lesson Here, then zoom into your image, and with a small hard brush, carefully remove the white line.
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When you have experimented with different filters, and you are happy with your result - from the top menu, choose Layer then choose Flatten Image. Your oval - or circular edge, is complete and ready to save.
Wendi E M Scarth. Top of Page - Home.
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