5 Creative borders for Lightroom

love Lightroom for it’s simplicity. It allows me to get my photos looking exactly how I want without any of the flashy extras that you’ll find in Photoshop. Lightroom is blissfully free from distractions like filters, layer styles and arty effect brushes. If you want to take your photos from camera to printer whilst keeping that photographic look then Lightroom is unbeatable.

However there are times when I want to do a little more then simply tidying up a photo and printing it out. I’ve always believed a border can enhance the look and enjoyment of pretty much any photo. That could mean something as simple as framing your photo once it’s printed or applying a creative border inside of the image editing software, not something that Lightroom excels at.

But all is not lost. In fact you can add your own creative border effects without leaving Lightroom, you just have to know the secret trick. The video below will reveal all.


ClassicDrawn

This is a simple but elegant multi stroke border which comes in a choice of white or black.

A hand drawn pencil line to frame your photo. Choice of black or white line with contrasting background.

 

GrungePainted

Heavy black or white border with a distressed edge.

Hand painted border that merges two tones for a very pleasing result. Choose between the black or white versions.

Film

Despite living in the digital age we still associate the film strip with photography.

Some other posts by Gavin Hoey

About the author

Gavin Hoey wrote 21 articles on this blog.

Gavin has been a regular contributor to Digital Photo Magazine in the UK since 2003 where he writes “how to...” techniques on photography and Photoshop Elements. His Photoshop lectures are always in demand and he can often be seen popping up at camera clubs all over the UK.

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18 Responses to 5 Creative borders for Lightroom

  1. Lesley Warwick on December 31, 2010 at 6:18 pm

    Where do I find the download for the frames please?

  2. TipSquirrel on January 1, 2011 at 1:11 am

    Right below this post, but above these comments

  3. Huberto Pimentel on March 22, 2011 at 6:30 pm

    Where do I find the frames for lightroom 3

  4. TipSquirrel on March 22, 2011 at 6:36 pm

    Click the images below the tutorial and they’ll download Huberto

  5. meee on April 12, 2011 at 9:23 pm

    awesome – exactely what I was missing in LR!
    I’d love to see some more simple boarders, keep up the good work!

  6. questor on April 13, 2011 at 8:24 pm

    humm – I have a Nikon D80 – my uncropped pics don’t fit the frame – am I doing something wrong?

  7. TipSquirrel on April 19, 2011 at 8:29 pm

    You’re doing nothing wrong questor, you will need to crop. Different cameras have different sizes I’m afraid.

  8. questor on April 20, 2011 at 12:02 pm

    are you planning on realeasing a wider variety of borders?
    and / or maybe different crop factors?
    Love the approach!

  9. Faisal on July 7, 2011 at 11:57 pm

    Hi there,

    Thanks for the excellent vid but upon saving the picture to a jpg the border is not being saved along with the picture.

    Any i doing something wrong?

    Regards
    Faisal

  10. Shoaib on July 24, 2011 at 11:50 am

    u didn’t mention if the image is in landscape, how to rotate the frame???

  11. Shoaib on July 24, 2011 at 12:00 pm

    u didn’t mention what if the image is in landscape??? i cant rotate the frame

  12. Chris on July 27, 2011 at 9:07 pm

    These are great! Thank you!

  13. Mirko on August 25, 2011 at 12:28 pm

    Hi,

    thanks for this tutorial, though I would like to add a canvas just in the upper and lower side of my photos…I think that right now that’s not possibile in LR.

    Mirko.

  14. Holly Tanner Strauss on October 24, 2011 at 5:02 pm

    After I download borders how and where do I put them in lightroom 3?

  15. MSD on October 29, 2011 at 6:52 pm

    Hi Gavin and TipSquirrel,

    thanks for sharing & Wants more frame as well as lanscape too..

    MSD

  16. Jakob on December 12, 2011 at 11:14 am

    Hi,

    being an old dark-room guy using Leitz Focomat elarger I am anxius to find a creative boarder that looks like the “film-edge”-effect that I was able to create when making copies with my Leitz Focomat. That means a boarder that is sort of vague/uneven inside of the boarder and sharp on the outside. Having also the framenumber and even “KODAK” från the negative film bein included in the boarder would also be cool. I am using Lightroom 3 and also NIK Silver Efex Pro foro B/W. The NIK sw can actually emulate different filmtypes som the only feature I miss is this film type boarder.

    Thx for advice

    J

  17. Hemsq on January 13, 2012 at 5:23 pm

    Good Job Thanks

    HeMs

  18. Ellicott City Wedding Photographer on January 27, 2012 at 2:11 pm

    Gavin, This was so useful – Thanks so much for the templates and the great video! This tutorial covered *exactly* what I needed to know to add a watermark and border to an image in LR.

    My only question is – is there any way to add borders to many photos at once? e.g. a batch border print once it’s setup?

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