Technique #9. Extracting a Border and Burning the Edges
In this variation, we'll use the Extract filter to create a border and then add a color effect to the edges of the resulting border.
key concepts:
filters
blend modes
Step One.
Press Command-J (PC: Control-J) to duplicate the Background layer. Press-and-hold the Command key (PC: Control key) and click on the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to add a new layer below the copied Background layer. Press D to set your Foreground and Background to the default colors, and then press Command-Delete (PC: Control-Backspace) to fill the new layer with white.
Step Two.
Click on the copied Background layer and from the Filter menu choose Extract. Using the Edge Highlighter tool (B) with the Shift key held down, click once in each corner of the photo to create a border, each time leaving a small amount of space between your painted border and the edge of the photo. Using the Fill tool (G), click once inside the border to fill the inside area with blue. Then, click OK.
Here's the result I got in this case.
Step Three.
Press-and-hold the Command key (PC: Control key) and click on the thumbnail of the extracted layer to load it as a selection, and then press Command-Shift-I (PC: Control-Shift-I) to Inverse the selection.
Step Four.
Add a new layer on top of the layer stack by making your top layer active and clicking on the Create a New Layer icon. Then, click on your Foreground color swatch at the bottom of the Toolbox and choose a color in the Color Pickera bright orange shade is a good starting place, but of course any color you choose will produce a different effect. Press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the selection on the new layer with your color. Press Command-D (PC: Control-D) to Deselect.
Step Five.
Change the blend mode of the top layer (using the pop-up menu at the top of the Layers palette) from Normal to Color Burn, and the color will only appear on the edges of the extracted border.
Variations
Here's another possibility: add a Gradient Overlay layer style to the top layer you made in Step Four. Choose one of the built-in gradients or make your own, but change the Blend Mode in the Layer Style dialog to Color Burn. This will add more color to the effect.
Variation 1: Colour Burn gradient overlay
Here's another example of the Color Burn effect, this time added to a smudge layer mask border effect (Technique #7).
Here's the result I got in this case.
