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Jun 17, 2009

Photoshop: logo bars

Filed under: Photography,retouching,techniques — Tags: , , , , , , , — Kay @ 2:45 pm

 

 

Photo editing is one thing, but another important thing is the finishing touch. Nowadays it’s completely hot, hip, trendy and soooo 2009 to give your photos a logo/text bar. All kidding aside; it does look pretty and makes certain photos a little more interesting to see. Especially when you want to print them. Here’s a simple and quick way to add these fancy borders and I tossed an action set in there as well.

 

Logo Bar:

Some photos just need that little extra something. This is one of those photos. These bars can lift regular snapshots to something special.

 

Press Ctrl + Alt + C  (Or via top menu: Image – Canvas Size), this will bring up your Canvas box. You’ll see  your photo dimension here. Now I want you to click on the Relative check box. This is the thing to do if you want to add or subtract a certain amount of space around your photo.

 

Make sure you’ve selected pixels.

 

I mainly use a 65 px bar, but use any amount you like. The anchor diagram let’s you select which side of the photo you want the bar to be. The center box is selected by default, meaning that if you don’t select anything, it will equally divide the amount of pixels on all sides. Select the opposite side of where you want the logo bar to appear, I want my bar at the bottom. Choose your color in the canvas extension color menu.

 

There you go, an instant logo bar. Could it be any simpler?

 

Now you can leave it like this, but I prefer adding a little white stroke to finish the upper and side edges as well, I want to do this within my photo and not add extra pixels, so I’ll use a stroke. Press Ctrl + J on your keyboard and rename the new layer to Border.

 

In the top bar menu go to Edit – Stroke.

 

This will bring up the stroke box. I’ve opted for a 15 px white border and selected Center.

 

It’s a simple thing, but it can make a really big difference in how you present your photos. Just add the text, or your company logo, and your done.

 

I took the liberty of preparing an action set free for you to download right >>HERE<<. It’s a set of 4 white border actions ( for all sides). Have fun with them.

 

Combine them all 4 and you get this. Have fun with them! If you want to make your own using different colors, here’s my “How to create actions” tutorial!

 

Cheat Sheet:

* Press Ctrl+Alt+C to bring up the Canvas Box
* Check the Relative box
* Select Pixels
* Set the border width
* Set the anchor point (opposite direction of where you want the border)
* Set the border color

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12 Comments »

  1. 1

    I just started doing this to my photos. Makes them look like Polaroids. Thank for the actions.

    Lisa (MidwestWoman) on Jun 17, 2009 @ 3:39 pm Reply
  2. 2

    You have some very helpful, easy-to-follow photoshop tutorials on your blog as well as some very tempting recipes.

    About your comment on my blog – I’d only commented (and visited) that blog once. If the works used on the blog are indeed stolen, that does suck. If you have not already done so, contact the original photographer, author, creator, etc. and tell them about it.

    Bryan on Jun 17, 2009 @ 9:22 pm Reply
  3. 3

    @Bryan:

    Thanks!

    Yes, it’s really bad. She merely displays stolen photography on her website, recipes and food photos that are stolen from a friend of mine, the rest she stole from Jamie Oliver. Heck, even the layout in her webdesign site is stolen from another company, and in a pretty bad way.

    We’ve contacted as many of the original photographers and webdesigners as we possibly could because people like this should be stopped. They abuse the hard work of others.

    Kay on Jun 17, 2009 @ 9:26 pm Reply
  4. 4

    Very nice. I have never used photo bars, but now I want to give it a try!

    Erica Lea on Jun 18, 2009 @ 1:50 am Reply
  5. 5

    How do you put that little logo across your photos that you post online? I use Elements and haven’t figured that out yet. THX for all the photo tips – they are great!

    Michele Morris on Jun 18, 2009 @ 5:21 pm Reply
  6. 6

    @Michele Morris:

    You mean the “Kayotic Photography” logo? That’s just a simple text logo!

    Kay on Jun 18, 2009 @ 5:24 pm Reply
  7. 7

    Love your recipes and photo tips.
    I wanted to try this with some of my photos, but when I try to download the action set all I get is some text….

    Carol on Jun 19, 2009 @ 9:07 pm Reply
  8. 8

    @Carol:

    That’s odd. What text do you get? Just gave it a try myself and I’m able to download them.

    Kay on Jun 19, 2009 @ 9:33 pm Reply
  9. 9

    Hi Kay,

    Thanks for the reply.

    This is what I get when I click on the >>here<<

    Carol on Jun 20, 2009 @ 7:13 am Reply
  10. 10

    Hi Kay,

    Well, I see the cut and paste part of the last message didn’t come out.
    I tried downloading the action on a different computer and it worked!!
    I look forward to trying it soon.

    Thanks again.

    Carol on Jun 20, 2009 @ 7:57 am Reply
  11. 11

    @Carol:

    You probably have some sort óf security built in against downloading things online.

    Kay on Jun 20, 2009 @ 8:58 am Reply
  12. 12

    Hi Kay, I love your blog,  we lean a lot with your tutorials and with your delicious recipes.
    Last year I saw your tutorial in how  you make your “Kayotic Photography” logo, you explained this very well. Today I was looking for the tutorial and was not possible to find it. Did you remove it?  can you please let me know how to do it?  It took me a long time to find your blog again as I had a crush in my computer.
    Thank you.
    Concepcion

    Concepcion on Jul 7, 2010 @ 6:42 am Reply

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