Finishing Touches: Professional Grade Effects For Digital Photographers

When launching her new collection of photo art greeting cards, nature photographer Laurie Excell was looking for something special to set them apart. The photo greeting card market is highly competitive and she knew that to capture a following she would need to create a unique look; something that made people want a Laurie Excell card.

Luckily, making digital photographs stand out in a crowd can be simple enough for amateur photographers as well as professionals. By capitalizing on generally available software tools, photographers can create a unique finish without significant added expense, equipment or time learning complex techniques. Photo frames and edges let you apply creative finishes to the borders of your photos while other effects can create artistic looks like antiquing, patina or watercolor. Corel Paintshop Pro and Adobe Photoshop both offer basic framing and edging tools but photographers like Laurie who want to go beyond stock effects to make their photos especially unique, specialized software programs exist.

While at industry trade show Photoshop World, she discovered PhotoFrame, a software solution that allows her to add an even more customized and personal look to her greeting card collections than Paintshop or Photoshop alone could provide. PhotoFrame, a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop provided by onOne software, is handy tool set that provides a way to highlight photos through the addition of customized borders and edge effects. With thousands of frames, edges and effects available, Laurie is able to choose the right effects to set her work apart. Because the tool works within Adobe, Laurie’s time investment in learning a new technique or complex program was minimal, allowing her to continue to focus on her art using software and techniques that were already familiar to her.

In addition to being the creator of her own line of fine art greeting cards of her wildlife and nature images, Laurie also teaches a digital landscape workshop, wildlife course, and an online photo journalism class.

"By adding torn edges or a drop shadow to a collection, I can add a signature edge to my photos that communicates it’s my work. Whenever I show my students or colleagues the software, they are impressed with how easy it is to get these finishes. The creative possibilities are truly endless.

"Laurie now uses software to maximize her photos’ potential, as demonstrated in the attached file. She has created several collections of fine art greeting cards including national park, lighthouse, and wildlife collections, each set off with different edges so that each series has a truly unique finish. Laurie has been sharing her passion for wildlife and the wonders of nature through her photography for nearly all of her life but turned it into a fulltime career in 2000. Since that time her images have been showcased in galleries and magazines in the Pacific Northwest, Audubon calendars, postcards, Camping Life Magazine, Amtrak Publications, the BT Journal, Outdoor Photographer and Outdoor Photography Magazine (UK) to name a few. Her images can also be viewed on her website http://www.excellnaturephotography.com

PhotoFrame lists for $159.95 www.ononesoftware.com