a·fire
_{adv. & adj.}
1. On fire.
2. Intensely interested.


Looks like I am obsessed.





<sub>Disclaimer:

The work contained in my gallery is Copyright ©2004-2008 IrenaN. All rights reserved. My work may not be reproduced, copied, edited, published, transmitted or uploaded in any way without my written permission. My work does not belong to the public domain.</sub>




Now few words of explanation for those who are interested in trying the *Out-Of-Frame* effect:

If you have PS CS you will find a simple explanation HERE.

If you use PS Elements like I do and don't have the layer mask, follow the steps below.

1. Choose an image with as simple background as possible (to make your life easier while selecting it with the magic wand tool );

2. Edit the image your usual way up to the point when you add your frame - and stop there;

3. Add the New Fill Layer -> Solid Color on top on your image, with the collor of your preference (all mine are black so far );

4. Change the opacity of the Fill Layer to 50% so you could see your image below it;

5. Using the Rectangular Marquee Tool select the part of the Fill Layer you want to cut out (that's where your image will show up) then go to Edit -> Cut and you will have your *hole* ready;

6. For adding the line around the cut off use the method working best for you (could be stroke selection, marquee selection filled with color, even stripe added with brush tool - it's up to you);

7. Now the tricky part. Click on the background layer on your Layers Palette (that's your image layer) and using the Magic Wand Tool select the background of your image. You will have to click a lot of times using *add to selection* option - just make sure none of the selection intrudes on the main subject.
When it is all selected go to Select -> Inverse and then save the selection;

8. Now click again on the Color Fill layer to make it active and load your selection here. You will see that you have an outline of the subject marked by the *marching ants*;

9. Chose the Eraser Tool, set its brush size to 100 pixels or so and opacity to 100% and move it over the selected part of your Color Fill Layer covering the parts you want outside the frame to remove it. The more careful you were in the step #7 the cleaner and nicer the *Out-Of-Frame* part will be (you could *smooth out* imperfections by zooming into the image and cleaning the stray pixels one by one with eraser set to 2 or 3 pixels and 50% opacity);

10. Change the opacity of the Color Fill Layer back to 100%, add your signature or watermark or whatever, and save the file in .PSD format first (so you could change parts you are not happy with without starting everything from scratch ), THEN in the format you use for posting on the Web.

I hope it all makes sense to you. It's easier done than explained. As I am not the inventor of this method and not the first *user* of it either, my method is what it is - mine. You could ask others doing the same or similar effect for their tips. So far I know of three other people doing it with smashing results. In alphabetical order:

=AdamsWife - [link]
*ernieleo - [link]
~Silorverion - [link]


Have fun, everybody.