How To Use Foto Frame Filter in Photoshop

A photographer friend of mine from Caedes shared with me a link to a special filter that you can add to your Photoshop filters. The filter is free, and you can have a lot of fun turning your photos into "masterpieces"!

The filter is called Foto Frame. The only problem is it does not come with instructions on how to use it. I was very frustrated until I discovered the secret to get the filter to work the way I wanted.

The first thing you need to do is install Foto Frame into your Photoshop program. You can download the program for free at Foto Frame.

Follow the directions on downloading and installing the file into Photoshop. In simple terms, open your hard drive file, open programs, find Adobe, open photoshop, open plug-ins folder, open filters, drag and drop the Foto Frame file into filters file.

Once you have installed the program, when you open your Photoshop program and go to the filters menu, you will find a filter called AAA Frames, and you will be ready to start!

Once you have your image open in photoshop, create a new layer. Do this in the layer tool box by dragging your image down to the icon next to the trash can in the lower right corner.

I intentionally chose this image because of it's simplicity. With this photo, I will only need one additional layer. Depending on what you are planning on doing with your image you may need to add more layers.

To add the third layer, simply put your mouse on that same icon and click. You will now see three open layers, two of the original image, and one blank one.

If you already know how to use layers in Photoshop, please bear with me. I had no idea how to do layers in photoshop when I first started using Foto Frame, and I want to make this as clear and easy for beginners.

When you using layers, two points are very important. You will notice an eyeball icon in front of the images. This indicates that the layers are visible. To look at one layer at a time, click on the eyeball icon to turn off the layers you do not want visible.

The second point to be aware of is which layer you are working on. The layer name should be highlghted.

Once you have the layer you are working on highlighted, click on the Filters tab and drop down to AAA Frames.

Now this is where the fun begins! Play around with the different settings to see how your image will look. You have now set all the settings how you want, and this is where the secret comes in!

You are able to see how your image will look with the settings, but the actual image will be different. For the longest time I could not figure out what I was doing wrong. I discovered that you need to slide the width control over to somewhere around 325. This will affect the preview image you see, but don't worry about that. Just hit the ok button, and see how it turms out. You can always undo and retry until you get it the way you want.

Now you have your framed image to work with. What I wanted to do with this photo was drop the petals on the bottom over the frame to appear like it was falling out of the frame.

It really is easy to do! First step is to use the Rectangular tool to isolate the portion of the photo that you want to work with.

As you can see in the illustration, I have used the filtered picture to select the area I want to fall out of the frame. Crop as close to the area you will use as you can. Once you have the area identified, switch to the original image by clicking on that layer.

As you can see, the rectangular tool is now highlighting the area on the original photo. Hit Control "C". Now go up to the blank layer and click on it to work on that layer, and hit Control "V". Turn off all other layers so all you see is the layer you just pasted to.

In this step you want to remove everything that you don't want to show on the image. I would recommend using the Zoom lense to bring it up to a larger size to work with.

I used the Magic wand to remove all of the black background, leaving only the white petals. Depnding on your image, and what you need to remove, you may also want to use the eraser. I use the eraser for fine tuning the edges after I have used the magic wand.

If you have zoomed in on your image, go back to the original size. While in Zoom tool, right click and it will give you that option.

Now all you have to do is view the two layers together! Your edited piece should be on top, with your original in the second spot. Click on the eye icon on both and see how your picture looks!

If you are happy with the way the new image looks, save it! If not, go back and work on it some more.

When you are satisfied with the results it will save as a PSD file. I have created a special folder to save all of PSD's in. When you save it in the mode, you can always open this file up again to make changes to it

After saving it in PSD, go back and "Save for web". This will give you a JPG version that you can use.

This is a simple example of how to use Foto Frame in Photoshop. I hope you enjoy creating new images. I used this same photo to create an image for my desktop, You can see the differences in what settings I used for my personal desktop image. Play around with your new toy, and have fun!

I hope this information was helpful for you. If you have any questions, please send me an email, or make a comment below, and I will try my best to help you.

Photography is my passion, and using Photoshop filters is a new experience for me.

I have posted several of my "filtered flowers" on my website Wallpaper by Design

Stop by and check out a few more samples of what you can do with Foto Frame!