I have a few backgrounds that I have obtained over the years and would like to produce some new ones. I have place an example of one that I use on this page: http://takeyourbestshot.com/Edges.htm
The file download is a TIFF with the Alpha Channels in tact.

I have played around with this numerous times and have not been able to reproduce its functionality. Anyone willing to give me a walk through on how to create one of these please?

JGeddes

there's all sorts of ways to create backgrounds and even ways to save them for semi-automatic use. you can just paint them with brushes, use airbrush, use patterns (and save as patterns), use textures (and save as textures), use canvases, papers and so on. and with the use of layers, you can even mix and match these types with each other.

so, maybe a little more specifics on exactly what you want to do or what you had in mind?

Craig

I’ve downloaded the Tiff file. It’s a greyscale image with 3 channels Outset 1,2 and 3

Could you please tell me how to use it?

Ken

I use PhotoShop CS. When I open one of these they are in Grayscale @ 400DPI and are defaulted to save as a TIFF compressed mode. I change the mode to RGB if desired.

When I open these borders they are not in layers. I resize them to fit what I am working with and then go to the Select Menu> Load selection> Choose one of the saved selections (each has a channel in the Channels palette). This selects some part of the gray area. I then go to my image and select all. Copy the image. Then "paste into".

That is all I have to do. I get a variable degree of masking according to the loaded selections that are saved.

If I want to adjust how my image is allowed to show through the mask that is created when I chose the "paste into" command. I paint it with white while selecting the mask in the layers palette.