Step 8: Select The Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer

To create our speckled photo border, we're going to add a Solid Color fill layer which will serve as the color of the border. We need to place the fill layer above all of the other layers in the image. By default, Photoshop adds new layers directly above the currently selected layer, and at the moment, "Layer 1" is currently selected, which means that if we were to add a new layer right now, Photoshop would place it between "Layer 1" and our Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. That's not what we want. We want the new layer to be placed above the adjustment layer, which means we first need to select the adjustment layer by clicking on it in the Layers palette:

Step 9: Drag Out A Rectangular Selection

Before we add the Solid Color fill layer, let's select the area that we want to use as the photo border. First, we'll drag out a rectangular selection around the area of the photo that we want to appear inside the border. To do that, grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool from the Tools palette, or simply press the letter M on your keyboard to select it with the shortcut:

Then, with the Rectangular Marquee Tool selected, click inside the image and drag a selection around the area that you want to remain visible inside the border. The area outside of the selection will become the border. Try to keep the same amount of space around all four sides as you drag out the selection. If you need to reposition the selection as you're dragging it out, hold down your spacebar, drag the selection around with your mouse to reposition it, then release the spacebar and continue dragging:

Step 10: Invert The Selection

We now have the area that we want to appear inside the border selected. Problem is, what we really need is for the border area itself to be selected. Fortunately, all we need to do is invert the selection, which will deselect everything that's currently selected (the area inside the border) and select everything that's not currently selected (the border area). Go up to the Select menu at the top of the screen and choose Inverse, or use the handy keyboard shortcut for inverting a selection, Shift+Ctrl+I (Win) / Shift+Command+I (Mac):

It may not seem at first like anything has happened since the original selection outline still remains, but if you look closely, you'll see that a second selection outline has now appeared around the edges of the photo. The area between the two selection outlines is now selected and ready to become our photo border, while the area to appear inside the border is now deselected:

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