Doug Barber
Veteran Member
I've put together a tutorial that covers a couple different possiblilities.
Adding matting to Photos
As a result of questions being asked on dpreview I’ve put together a tutorial of the matting technique that I use on my photos. This is actually based on a tutorial that was posted by Dave (@the retouching forum) awhile back and one that I’ve added to a little. Hope you don’t mind Dave…
I’ve laid the tutorial in two sections. Steps #1-20 walks you through creating a project with a “cover matte”. If you are not interested in a cover matte then go directly to step #21.
CREATING A PROJECT WITH A COVER MATTE
1. Open all photos you want to use in your montage.
2. Create a “new” background that you will paste your images on to. Make sure you allow the background to be large enough to accommodate all of your stack images.
3. Copy and paste into background layer your images.
4. Feather selections if desired
5. Transform> Scale
6. Repeat until all images are pasted into background layer
7. Move images into final location on background
8. Flatten image
9. Double click background copy in the layers pallet and rename “Photo”
10. Create new layer call it Matte #1
11. Choose color, apply with paint bucket
12. Add texture (optional)
13. Drag Matte #1 to bottom of layer stack in Layer palette
14. Still on Matte #1 go to layer > style> bevel and emboss, style “inner bevel”, 8 pixel, click down button. Make sure angle is always 120 degree
15. Select all, go to Edit> stroke, 2 pixel (black)
16. Use marquee tool to “cut” holes in matte #1.
17. Drag Matte #1 to top of stack in layer palette
(You should now see your images through Matte #1)
18. Modifications to the holes can be done at this time but it is optional. I have used the smudge tool on two images in this exercise and left one image normal. You will note that one smudged image hole was defaulted to lighten and the other to darken.
19. You now have a basic photo stack with images showing through your cover matting.
20. You can now flatten image if you want but again that is optional
CREATING ADDITIONAL MATTING ON YOUR PROJECT
21. Before going forward, flatten image and name it “Photo”
22. Make Duplicate layer
23. Go to Layer> layer style> inner shadow add 5 pixel distance and size. You can adjust these to your own taste later. Important, keep the angle on everything at 120 degrees
24. Make new layer, title it “First Matte”. Drag it to the bottom of the layers pallet. Go to Image> canvas size. Add .5 to both the width and height of this layer. Click OK
25. . Go to Select> select all. Go to Edit> stroke. Add 2 pixel black stroke to the “First Matte” layer. At this point select a color for the first matte. Try a medium color for this exercise.
26. Still on the “First Matte” layer, go to Layer> layer style> bevel and emboss. Style “Inner bevel”, 7 or 8-pixel size, click the "down" button. Make sure angle is always 120 degrees. You can add a texture to the 2 mattes any time you choose
27. Make new layer, title it “Second Matte”. Drag it to the bottom of the layers palette. Go to Image> canvas size and resize to 8”X10”. Click ok.
At this point you should have a finished matted picture. You can save and keep all the layers in this picture for future changes
--
Cheers
Doug B.
CP5700; PS7; MAC Ti-Book G4
Adding matting to Photos
As a result of questions being asked on dpreview I’ve put together a tutorial of the matting technique that I use on my photos. This is actually based on a tutorial that was posted by Dave (@the retouching forum) awhile back and one that I’ve added to a little. Hope you don’t mind Dave…
I’ve laid the tutorial in two sections. Steps #1-20 walks you through creating a project with a “cover matte”. If you are not interested in a cover matte then go directly to step #21.
CREATING A PROJECT WITH A COVER MATTE
1. Open all photos you want to use in your montage.
2. Create a “new” background that you will paste your images on to. Make sure you allow the background to be large enough to accommodate all of your stack images.
3. Copy and paste into background layer your images.
4. Feather selections if desired
5. Transform> Scale
6. Repeat until all images are pasted into background layer
7. Move images into final location on background
8. Flatten image
9. Double click background copy in the layers pallet and rename “Photo”
10. Create new layer call it Matte #1
11. Choose color, apply with paint bucket
12. Add texture (optional)
13. Drag Matte #1 to bottom of layer stack in Layer palette
14. Still on Matte #1 go to layer > style> bevel and emboss, style “inner bevel”, 8 pixel, click down button. Make sure angle is always 120 degree
15. Select all, go to Edit> stroke, 2 pixel (black)
16. Use marquee tool to “cut” holes in matte #1.
17. Drag Matte #1 to top of stack in layer palette
(You should now see your images through Matte #1)
18. Modifications to the holes can be done at this time but it is optional. I have used the smudge tool on two images in this exercise and left one image normal. You will note that one smudged image hole was defaulted to lighten and the other to darken.
19. You now have a basic photo stack with images showing through your cover matting.
20. You can now flatten image if you want but again that is optional
CREATING ADDITIONAL MATTING ON YOUR PROJECT
21. Before going forward, flatten image and name it “Photo”
22. Make Duplicate layer
23. Go to Layer> layer style> inner shadow add 5 pixel distance and size. You can adjust these to your own taste later. Important, keep the angle on everything at 120 degrees
24. Make new layer, title it “First Matte”. Drag it to the bottom of the layers pallet. Go to Image> canvas size. Add .5 to both the width and height of this layer. Click OK
25. . Go to Select> select all. Go to Edit> stroke. Add 2 pixel black stroke to the “First Matte” layer. At this point select a color for the first matte. Try a medium color for this exercise.
26. Still on the “First Matte” layer, go to Layer> layer style> bevel and emboss. Style “Inner bevel”, 7 or 8-pixel size, click the "down" button. Make sure angle is always 120 degrees. You can add a texture to the 2 mattes any time you choose
27. Make new layer, title it “Second Matte”. Drag it to the bottom of the layers palette. Go to Image> canvas size and resize to 8”X10”. Click ok.
At this point you should have a finished matted picture. You can save and keep all the layers in this picture for future changes
--
Cheers
Doug B.
CP5700; PS7; MAC Ti-Book G4
