Adobe Photoshop CS6 Top 100 Simplified Tips and Tricks by Lynette Kent

Add a quick matte to a photo with a FRAME
ACTION
You can add interest and give a finished look
to your photographs by adding a digital
matte or frame to your images. You can
quickly apply a variety of mattes or frames
using an action from the Actions panel in
Photoshop. The Frame Channel - 50 pixels
shown in this task puts your photo on a
larger white canvas and lets you fill a
50-pixel-wide channel with any color or even
a pattern. Select a color from the image itself
to create a coordinating digital matte.
Photoshop includes many more frame
actions; however, not all are loaded when
you first open the application. To apply other
frame actions, click the panel menu button
on the Actions panel and click Frames to load
the additional frames actions. You can then
play any of these actions to frame or matte
your photo. Some frame actions require a
selection inside the image. Others stop so
you can select a color for the frame.
Actions are stored as files with the .atn
extension in the Photoshop Actions folder in
the Presets folder.
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DIFFICULTY LEVEL
1 3
4
1 Open an image.
2 Press Option+F9 (Alt+F9) to open
the Actions panel.
Note: You can optionally click
Window ➪ Actions to open the
Actions panel.
3 Click Frame Channel - 50 pixels.
4 Click the Play button.
Note: A warning dialog box
appears. If your image is over 100
pixels wide and tall, click Continue.
5
6
8
Photoshop plays the action,
leaving a 50-pixel channel
selected around the photo.
5 Click Edit ➪ Fill.
The Fill dialog box appears.
6 Click the Use drop-down menu
and select Color.
7 When the Color Picker appears,
click a color in the image to select
it and click OK.
8 Click OK in the Fill dialog box.
The 50-pixel channel is filled with
the color.
9 Press Ô+D (Ctrl+D) to deselect
the channel.
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