Gallery Style Photo Frame Layout
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Step 12: Increase The Thickness Of The Outer Border
Double-click on the word Stroke below the border layer in the Layers panel:
This re-opens the Layer Style dialog box, once again set to the Stroke options in the middle column. Let's make the outer border a bit thicker than the original one by dragging the Size slider further towards the right. Again, you can see a live preview of the stroke in the document window as you drag the slider. I'm going to increase my outer stroke size to 12 px. Leave all of the other options the same:
Click OK to again exit out of the Layer Style dialog box. We now have a thin border directly around the photo area and a thicker border around the outside of it, completing our basic frame:
Step 13: Open The Photo You Want To Display
It's time to add our photo to the photo area! Open the photo you want to display, which will appear in a separate document window. Here's the image I'll be using:
Step 14: Select And Copy The Image
Press Ctrl+A (Win) / Command+A (Mac) to quickly select the entire photo. Then press Ctrl+C (Win) / Command+C (Mac) to copy it to the clipboard.
Step 15: Select The Photo Area Layer
With the photo copied to the clipboard, switch back over to the original document window (the gallery photo frame layout) and click on the photo area layer in the Layers panel to select it:
Step 16: Paste The Photo Into The Document
Press Ctrl+V (Win) / Command+V (Mac) to paste the photo we copied to the clipboard a moment ago into the document. Photoshop will automatically place the photo on its own layer directly above whatever layer was selected at the time (which is why we selected the photo area layer first), as we can see by looking in the Layers panel. Photoshop named the photo layer "Layer 1", which is fine. No need to rename it:
If we look in the document window, though, we see that the image is currently too big to fit inside the photo area and is blocking it from view:
Step 17: Create A Clipping Mask
We need a way to make the image fit inside the photo area, and we can do that using a clipping mask. First, click on the layer that contains the photo ("Layer 1") in the Layers panel to select it. Then go up to the Layer menu at the top of the screen and choose Create Clipping Mask:
The photo layer will indent to the right in the Layers panel, letting us know that it's now "clipped" to the layer below it:
Thanks to the clipping mask, only the area of the image that falls directly above the gray photo area below it is now visible in the document window. Areas outside the boundaries of the photo area are hidden from view:
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