Photoshop gurus I need your help on this one. Look inside.

Ok so all you photoshop nut jobs that know the ins and outs of layers and PS. I am doing a current project of mine, a personal print for my past 4 years of photography. So I took a picture of my 500mm and 1D3 mounted together on a green screen and cut out just the lens and camera and made a layer mask on a new white layer so when I insert image in between the base layer and the new layer with the mask the mask will shape the profile shot of the 50mm and 1D3. It is gonna be a collage of all my photos in the shape of the lens and camera.

Now my question for you is once I am done I would like to place a solid black stroke around the entire image. What is the easiest way of going about it?

Here is a screen shot of my work so far in CS5.
http://farm7.static.fl​ickr.com …71440675_d413fc​1ce7_o.jpg

The image is gonna be printed out @ 12x36, the is what the new document was set to. Can I use the mask as a quide for the stroke? What would work the best?

Thanks in advance.

Sevan

Once you're done with your collage, select your layer with the mask, then Ctrl-Left Click to create a selection based on that mask.

Then go to Select > Modify > Borders and create a border around your image. Fill it with black and set that below your collage. Or just select your final image (assuming no background), and Select > Modify > Borders to create a border and fill that with black.

Edit: Or I guess you can just Layer > Layer Style > Outer Glow or Stroke.

Edit 2: @tkerr, you're right it's Ctrl-Left Click, not Right-Click to create selection from mask heh.

solara wrote in post #12815164
Once you're done with your collage, select your layer with the mask, then Ctrl-Right Click to create a selection based on that mask.

Or Ctrl + Left Click on the mask to create/load the selection. Click the picture icon for the layer so that you are working with the image and not the mask. Then Right click inside the marching ants selection area on your image then choose Stroke from the pop-up menu. (or Edit>Stroke) Chose the color and pixel width as well where on the selection you want stroked. I.e. Inside, Centered or Outside the selection. Click Ok, and then Ctrl D to deselect.

On edit:
Looking at your mask you might also need to Invert selection after you ctrl +click on the mask to load selection. (Select>Inverse, or Shift+Ctrl+I) That way the selection will be of your collage only.

Cool Idea!

Nice!!

solara wrote in post #12815164
Once you're done with your collage, select your layer with the mask, then Ctrl-Right Click to create a selection based on that mask.

Then go to Select > Modify > Borders and create a border around your image. Fill it with black and set that below your collage. Or just select your final image (assuming no background), and Select > Modify > Borders to create a border and fill that with black.

Edit: Or I guess you can just Layer > Layer Style > Outer Glow or Stroke.

Ok so I tried it and the layer with the mask is highlight blue, but when I Ctrl-right click I get a window say backgrou, select similar layers............... Did I do something wrong?

tkerr wrote in post #12815360
Or Ctrl + Left Click on the mask to create/load the selection. Click the picture icon for the layer so that you are working with the image and not the mask. Then Right click inside the marching ants selection area on your image then choose Stroke from the pop-up menu. (or Edit>Stroke) Chose the color and pixel width as well where on the selection you want stroked. I.e. Inside, Centered or Outside the selection. Click Ok, and then Ctrl D to deselect.

On edit:
Looking at your mask you might also need to Invert selection after you ctrl +click on the mask to load selection. (Select>Inverse, or Shift+Ctrl+I) That way the selection will be of your collage only.

ALright Ctrl-Left click on the layer mask selected the entire outside of the document along with the shape of the layer mask. Then I reclicked on to the white document just to the left of the layer mask. Now when I right click within the marching ant the window pops up but everything is greyed out. WTF? But I can go Edit: Stroke and it will work but the stroke doesn't appear until I do Center or Inside, outside doesn't work. Sweet It works, but I have to go back and mask out the outside border stroke not a big deal, But before I finalize the stroke I need to go in and clean up the layer mask, need to make all the lines straight and not bumpy.

Thanks a bunch guys, Now I know in the future.

freebird wrote in post #12815651
Cool Idea!

Thanks freebird, I got the idea from a friend who did a collage of images but in a heart shape for this organization he took a bunch of pix of, but his was not smooth edges just a bunch of images layed out in a heart shape. Once I get done this should look pretty sweet @ 12x36.