Summary: In this two-part Photoshop tutorial, learn how to create and add photo mount corners to an image, a nice finishing touch for wedding or engagement photos, family portraits, travel photos, and more!

Written by Steve Patterson
Exclusively for Photoshop Essentials.com.

Part of our complete collection of Photo Effects tutorials.

In this Photoshop Effects tutorial, we'll learn how to create and add simple photo mounts to an image, a nice finishing touch for displaying wedding or engagement photos, family portraits, travel photos and more! Since there's quite a few steps involved (all of them easy), and most of them will only ever need to be completed once, I've divided the tutorial into two parts. In this first part, we'll create the actual photo mount itself and save it. Then in part two, we'll add multiple copies of the photo mount to our image! After you've completed this first part of the tutorial, you can jump straight to part two any time you need a refresher on how to add the photo mounts to your photos.

I'll be using Photoshop CS5 throughout this tutorial, but any recent version will do. Here's the final result we'll be working towards. The photo mounts are displayed in each corner of the image:

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Let's get started!

Step 1: Create A New Document

Let's begin by creating a new Photoshop document for our photo mount. Go up to the File menu in the Menu Bar along the top of the screen and choose New:

This opens Photoshop's New Document dialog box. There's no specific size we need for the document, but to keep us on the same page, enter 800 pixels for the Width, 600 pixels for the Height and 72 pixels/inch for the Resolution. Also, make sure the Background Contents option is set to White. Click OK when you're done to exit out of the dialog box. Your new document will appear on your screen:

Step 2: Add A New Blank Layer

Click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel:

Nothing will happen in the document window, but we can see in the Layers panel that Photoshop has added a new blank layer named "Layer 1" above the Background layer, which is the layer that contains our white background:

Step 3: Draw A Rectangular Selection

Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool from the top section of the Tools panel:

With the Rectangular Marquee Tool selected, hold down your Shift key, then click and drag out a square selection outline in the center of the document. Holding the Shift key down as you drag is what forces the shape of the selection into a perfect square:

Step 4: Fill The Selection With Black

With the selection in place, go up to the Edit menu at the top of the screen and choose Fill:

When the Fill dialog box appears, set the Use option at the top to Black:

Click OK to exit out of the dialog box, and Photoshop fills the square selection with black:

Step 5: Reduce The Selection Size By 50%

Notice that the selection outline around the black square is still visible and active in the document, which means we can still work with it. We need to shrink it down in size, and we can do that using Photoshop's Transform Selection command. Go up to the Select menu at the top of the screen and choose Transform Selection:

This places transform handles (little squares) around the selection outline in the document window, similar to what we'd see if we had chosen the Free Transform command from the Edit menu. The difference is that Free Transform would alter the pixels inside the selection outline, while Transform Selection affects only the selection outline itself, not the pixels inside it. We need to shrink the size of the selection outline by 50%, so go up to the Options Bar along the top of the screen and enter 50% for both the Width (W) and Height (H):

Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) once to accept the changes in the Options Bar, then press it a second time to accept the transformation. The selection outline will appear at half its original size inside the square:

Step 6: Delete The Center Of The Square

Press Backspace (Win) / Delete (Mac) on your keyboard to delete the center of the square, then press Ctrl+D (Win) / Command+D (Mac) to remove the selection outline. With the center of the square deleted, we can see the white background from the Background layer showing through it:

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