Written By Steve Patterson

In this Photoshop tutorial, we're going to learn how easy it is to add a fun and interesting border to a photo using nothing more than a simple layer mask and your choice of Photoshop filter. I say "your choice" because there's no shortage of filters to choose from in Photoshop and many of them are great for creating unique photo borders. We'll look at a few examples of ones that work really well, but you'll definitely want to experiment on your own with the various filters to see what sort of photo border effects you can come up with!

Here's the image I'll be using for this tutorial:

Let's get started!

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Step 1: Duplicate The Background Layer

With my image newly opened in Photoshop, I can see in my Layers palette that I currently have one layer, the Background layer, which contains my image:

Since our Background layer contains our original image information, it's always a good idea to duplicate it before doing any work. That way, we won't touch the original and we'll always have it to fall back on if we need it. The easiest way to duplicate a layer in Photoshop is by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac). If we look again in the Layers palette, we can see that we now have two layers - the original Background layer on the bottom and a copy of it, which Photoshop has named "Layer 1", on top:

Step 2: Add A New Blank Layer Between The Two Existing Layers

Next, we need to add a new layer between our two existing layers. To do that, make sure "Layer 1" is currently selected in the Layers palette (it should be highlighted in blue). Then, hold down your Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) key and click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Normally, Photoshop adds the new layer above the currently selected layer in the Layers palette, but by holding down the "Ctrl" / "Command" key, this tells Photoshop to add it below the currently selected layer instead. We can now see in the Layers palette that we have a new blank layer between the Background layer and "Layer 1":

Step 3: Fill The New Layer With White

We're going to use white as our border color, so we need to fill our new blank layer with white. To do that, let's first make sure that our Foreground and Background colors in Photoshop are set to their defaults by pressing the letter D on the keyboard. This sets the Foreground color to black and the Background color to white. We can see this by looking at the Foreground and Background color swatches near the bottom of the Tools palette. The square in the top left represents the current Foreground color, while the square in the bottom right shows us the current Background color:

With the Foreground and Background colors set to the defaults, make sure the new blank layer is currently selected in the Layers palette. Then use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Backspace (Win) / Command+Delete (Mac) to fill the layer with the current Background color, which is white. Nothing will appear to have happened in the document window since the image on "Layer 1" is blocking the new layer from view, but if we look in our Layers palette, we can see in the layer's preview thumbnail that the layer has indeed been filled with white:

Step 4: Add Extra Canvas Space Around The Image

Let's give ourselves a little room to play around with when creating our border. First, we'll add some extra canvas space around the photo. To do that, go up to the Image menu at the top of the screen and choose Canvas Size. When the Canvas Size dialog box appears, enter a value of 1 inch for both the Width and the Height. This will add an extra inch of canvas space around the image. Also, make sure the Relative option is checked:

Click OK to add the extra canvas space and exit out of the dialog box. You'll see the extra white space added around the image in your document window: