MICHELE CELENTANO, in her presentation at this year’s WPPI conference, articulated a concern that’s on the minds of many photographers these days: Our clients have sophisticated digital cameras that are often just as capable as ours, and with the cost of film being a thing of the past, they are experimenting more and becoming better photographers. Will they still need us in a few years? And, if they are using cameras similar to those used by professionals, how will we continue to remind and convince them of that need? Celentano’s answer was to encourage her audience of professional photographers to raise their game in every way possible. Most specifically, she suggested using the best lenses—not only for the sharpness and other advantages they offer, such as the shallow depth of field that comes with a large-aperture lens, but also because of the psychological edge reclaimed when using better, more professional equipment.
Along the same lines, photographers must learn other ways to distinguish themselves. A recent trend is to use Photoshop techniques to add a special touch. There are myriad software
offerings, from big companies down to individual photographers. In this article, I will explore software that specifically addresses adding edges (also called borders or frames, as different
manufacturers use different terminology) to an image. These software packages are from three photographers whose names may already be familiar to Rangefinder readers: I’ll be reviewing Cherie Steinberg Coté’s EdgyGirl, Kevin Kubota’s Sloppy Borders and Parker Pfister’s Parker J Edge. I’ll also take a look at onOne Software’s PhotoFrame, which you may remember from
this year’s June issue. The first package I experimented with was EdgyGirl Volume 1.
The best thing about EdgyGirl is its simplicity. Each edge is simply a layered Photoshop file. First, open the file with the desired edge in Photoshop. Then copy and paste your image file into the
edge effect file and adjust to taste. The Photoshop files even tell you where in the layer stack to paste your image—there will be a layer labeled “Paste Your Image Above This Layer.”
The edges are grouped into several categories: 4 x 5 Polaroid, Painted, Sloppy and More Edges. The 4 x 5 Polaroid edges simulate the peel-apart Polaroid films and the unique artifacts they
leave behind. Most of these edges also add a bit of smudginess and scratchiness, too. (The lowest numbered file, EdgyGirl_001, has the least smudginess and scratchiness, with the higher
numbered files having progressively more.) The Painted edges have a more sharply defined insideborder and painterly outside borders with white space around them. The Sloppy borders are
fairly conservative black borders with some irregularities, and these are the closest thing to the sloppy borders that are offered by many photo labs. The More Edges folder has one edge
that simulates two Polaroid SX-70 prints that are paper clipped together and two others that are Polaroid peel-apart films with the paper still attached.
I found it difficult to choose the best edge by viewing the file icons on my Mac, as the icons are simply too small for this purpose. Instead, I viewed the same folder via Adobe Bridge with
nice big previews. This made for much more efficient work, and I knew I’d be happy with an edge before opening it.
While EdgyGirl provides a simple way to access some useful edges, there is one inconvenience that comes with this simplicity: The image sizes are fixed and may not match the size of the
image file you are working with. This is easily remedied with the Image Size command. I never found it necessary to match the pixel dimensions of the edge and the image file exactly. Instead I
just ballparked it—with good results.
Kubota Image Tools provides an application called Kubota Sloppy Borders, which combines a variety of templates—TIFF files with borders in them, much like the edge files provided by
Cheriefoto—in conjunction with several actions (used for the setup) and scripts that are run from the File menu.
When you run the Single Border script, a File Browser window appears, allowing you to choose from the numerous different borders available. Just as with EdgyGirl, it is a bit hard to see the edges at this small size, and it might be useful to use Bridge to view them larger before selecting one. The program will take the selected border and do the necessary processing to copy layers to a single file, resize the layers to match and add a white border outside the black sloppy border.
Another nice feature of the program is that it allows batch processing so that borders can be added to a group of photos without great effort. It also provides a convenient way to make
4 x 6 proofs with sloppy borders. The borders available range from thin to thick, with numerous variations that evoke cut-off sprocket holes, a blur from emulsion curving at the edges, etc. In fact, these effects look very realistic—as though they were from a traditional analog photographic process. However, all the borders are pretty much a variation on a single theme and don’t include such things as Polaroid or painted borders. Also, you’ll have to read the installation instructions to know where to place the various action and script folders and how to set up the program.
I also looked at Parker J Edge Volume 1 from Parker J. Pfister. Pfister includes a movie that provides all the necessary instructions. (Just as with Kubota Sloppy Borders, installation requires
that a file be copied to the Photoshop Actions folder; this file is loaded via the Actions palette. Pfister’s Edge, however, does not add the complication of scripts.) Parker J Edge has an action for inside edges—edges that fit inside (and thus overlap) the existing image area. It also has an
outside edge action that adds the edge and an outside white border around the existing image area. There is also an inside knockout action that, instead of adding a dark border, uses the
selected template to fade towards transparency. There are also some other burning and fading effects that are more generic and don’t require you to select a template file.
Pfister’s actions that work with a template edge file require you to position the edge by grabbing the corners of the edge layer and dragging it to superimpose it over the image file. (This is an
improvement over EdgyGirl, which requires you to resize them. But it is not quite as convenient as Kubota Sloppy Borders, which automatically resizes the edge to fit.)
Lastly, I looked at onOne Software’s PhotoFrame. PhotoFrame provides the largest number of options. It has numerous types of edges and borders. There are so many of them that it actually
becomes a liability, as many of them are artificial or cutesy and may not be appropriate for most professional photographers’ needs. Don’t get me wrong—there are a lot of excellent ones, in-
cluding overlapping numbers, emulsion effects, cut-out masks, watercolor, Mondrian and even fingerprints. Unfortunately, it can be time-consuming finding the good ones. On the other hand, they do provide two features to assist with this: View Grid allows you to preview several selected frames in a grid; the Favorites list allows you to keep your most useful frames in a convenient area for reuse. Optional collections of unique frames by several different photographers are also available. Each application has its strengths. EdgyGirl is so simple that
anyone who understands layers can begin to use it immediately. It also has a nice variety of edge styles. The Polaroid edges and painted edges are very eye-catching and make for some
nice variety along with the more conventional sloppy borders it provides.
Kubota Sloppy Borders is easy to use once it is set up, as it doesn’t require you to resize the edges. It also provides a batch capability that some photographers may consider a critical fea- ture. For example, a photographer can add borders to several hundred wedding photos with ease. Also, the package provides an action that will batch process a folder and make 4 x 6 proof
images with sloppy borders.
Parker J Edge is quite simple to install and provides a unique capability—the knockout, or fade to transparency, as well as the inside and outside edge effects. Also the manual step of dragging the edge to resize it allows some added control over how the edge appears, which some photographers will appreciate.
PhotoFrame provides the greatest variety of edge effects, but the downside is time wasted sifting the good from the bad. PhotoFrame also has the largest learning curve by far. (As I usually do with new software, I tried to learn PhotoFrame without the manual. As such, it took me a while to figure out that as I was selecting new frames, I was also adding them to a layer stack of frames. In other words, they were all overlapping and I had to delete the older frames if I didn’t want to create a
complex overlap.)
EdgyGirl retails for $150; Kubota Sloppy Borders retails for $125; Parker J Edge retails for $199; PhotoFrame Pro 3.1 retails for $159.95. See the individual websites listed below for more
information on these products.
Adding interesting borders to images is a simple and effective way to add a distinctive finishing touch to your photographs. At the same time, it provides another way to distinguish professional photographers from the crowd with digital cameras. You could say that it might just give you a little edge over the competition.
Larry Brownstein is the photographer and author of two books, Los Angeles,
Where Anything is Possible and The Midnight Mission. His photos appear
in numerous books, magazines, calendars, etc. His stock photography is repre-
sented by Getty Images. He has a growing wedding photography business. His
work can be seen at www.larrybrownstein.com.
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