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This lesson demonstrates how to create photographic edges utilising The Quick Mask and Paint Brush tools. Brushes have varying densities, opacities, sizes and shapes, and with a little experimentation, and practise, you can create beautiful, and original, photographic edges, from scratch.
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Open a photograph onto Photoshop’s workspace.
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Then from the toolbar, left-click the following Edit in Quick Mask Mode icon.
The Foreground and Background colours will immediately change to the following (black and white).
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Now, from the toolbar, activate the Brush Tool. 
Then from the Brush Tool’s Options bar. Brush Tutorials
Left-click the tiny black triangle (above left). This displays a drop-down menu containing your current brush choices. Now, left-click the tiny black triangle indicated above right by the red arrow, and the following drop-down list will display, (below right).
Quickly adjust the brush size!
To adjust the brush size, press your keyboard’s left-side (or right-side), bracket keys - ensuring the keyboard is set to lower case, and Not capitals!
To utilise the brush I am painting with, left-click Reset Brushes and ensure there is a tick before Stroke Thumbnail - as shown above. Now, scroll the left-side brush examples (below), and double-left-click to highlight the Star 26 Pixels brush.
Your brush is now set!
I am utilising the Star 26 Pixels brush because it provides a distressed edge, creating an artistic border fade. However, Experiment with all brushes you have at your disposal!
Accessing The Hidden Brush Palette
Photoshop’s brush palette is the largest tool palette, and to save workspace, (by default), a large number of Presets are hidden. To access the hidden palette, press F5, at the top of your keyboard. Alternatively, from the top menu’s Palette Well, click the following Brushes tab.
Clicking Brushes displays the following Brush Presets dialogue box.
Within the Brush Presets menu on the left-side, you will notice various settings that can be altered; for example, to change the direction of the brush, left-click Brush Tip Shape. You are then presented with a menu, shown above right. Amongst other settings, you can change the brush’s Angle and Spacing. Take a little time to explore the hidden brush settings, and see how they can effect the appearance and position of your brushes. This is especially important when creating photographic edges.
Note
My brush’s Master Diameter of 124, may be too small - or too large - for your photograph, therefore, adjust it’s size accordingly.
My Brush Tool options bar resembles the following.
The (Red) Mask’s Purpose
The mask’s purpose is to protect the photograph from changes; allowing you to create a photographic edge around its border.
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You are ready to paint the mask onto your image. Note: As you paint, you will be applying a rubylith (transparent red) mask over your image. However, if your image is predominantly red, you can change the colour - I explain how Here.
Now, apply the red mask to your photograph.
Your aim is to paint a mask onto the centre of the image, filling it completely, leaving a (red-free) edge surrounding it. You will (later) fill the mask-free edge with white - creating a white border-edge.
Tip
If you make a mistake, from the top menu choose, Edit then choose Step Backwards and reapply the mask.
Note
You may find it easier to draw the outline first, then fill in the middle.
 
To ensure no areas have been missed by the red mask, from the toolbar, activate the following Edit in Standard Mode icon. 
The mask will be replaced by a selection marquee, that takes the shape of an edge-border. Now, look carefully in the middle of the image, (inside the inner marquee) and if you see moving dotted lines, as indicted below.
You need to remove them. Therefore, activate the following Edit in Quick Mask Mode icon.
And the (red) mask will be reapplied. Now, paint over the areas you have missed.
Note
After you have painted the centre with red, you may find it helpful to change the brush tip to a medium density - this ensures you leave no (unpainted - red) gaps.
When you have applied the mask to your image, it will resemble the following.
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From the toolbar, activate the following Edit in Standard Mode icon.
And your image will immediately change to the following selection marquee edge.
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It is time to fill the selected edge-border with white, and there are two ways of doing this. Therefore, set the Foreground colour to White. Tutorial.
And activate the Paint Bucket Tool.
Then from its Options bar, set the following attributes.
Now, left-click (once) inside the selected border-edge, and it will fill with white.
Note: The more you click, the denser the white will become.
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Alternatively, ensure the Foreground colour remains White, then from the top menu, choose Edit then choose Fill, and in the subsequent Fill dialogue box, ensure Use is set to Foreground Colour, then choose OK.
Your selected border will now be white, and your edge is complete.
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From the top menu, choose Select then Deselect, and your image is ready to save.
9/ Coloured Edges
Instead of filling the outer edge white, prior to removing the marquee, you can fill it with any colour, gradient, pattern, Photoshop effect or third party plugin filter, you like. To fill it with a colour, or pattern, instead of choosing Foreground from the Fill dialogue box (Chapter 6), you can change its settings to a different colour, or pattern - as shown below.
 
Additionally, if you would like to fill the edge with a gradient, choose the Gradient Tool.
Then drag a gradient onto your canvas. Gradient Tool Lesson - Chapter 6.
You can further personalise your photographic edge by applying Photoshop’s (or third party) plugin filters - whatever filter (or effect) you choose, will be applied to the edge. For the following example, I applied Eyecandy effects and Photoshop’s own filters - you can have lots of fun finding out what works and what doesn’t.
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For the following edge, I chose Effects then Filter then Distort, I then selected the Ocean Ripple filter with the following settings.
Additionally, prior to removing the marquee, I applied an Eyecandy Drop Shadow, which darkened the edge.
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Note - changing the mask’s colour
If you are working with an image that contains a lot of red, you may wish to change the mask’s default (red) colour, or its opacity. To do this, double-left-click either the Edit in Standard Mode or the Edit in Quick Mask Mode icons (below left) and the following Quick Mask Options dialogue box will appear.
Now, double-left-click the Colour swatch, and set a colour you prefer.
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When you are happy with your edge effect, from the top menu, choose Select then choose Deselect and your image is ready to print, or save.
For my second example edge, I painted with the Fuzzball brush.
 
Wendi E M Scarth. Top of Page - Home.
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