Giving A Photo Rounded Corners In Photoshop

Step 3: Select The Rounded Rectangle Tool

With our vector mask now added, go over to the Tools palette and select the Rounded Rectangle Tool. By default, it's nested in with the normal Rectangle Tool, so click on the Rectangle Tool and hold your mouse down for a second or two. You'll see a fly-out menu appear. Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool from the list:

Don't confuse these tools with the Marquee Tools at the top of the Tools palette, like the Rectangular Marquee or the Elliptical Marquee Tool. Those are selection tools and they're used to drag out selections. The tools we're selecting here are Shape tools and they're used to draw shapes.

With the Rounded Rectangle Tool selected, go up to the Options Bar at the top of the screen. You'll see a group of three icons over on the left. These three icons determine how our Shape tool will work. We want to draw shapes with our Shape tool (sounds fairly obvious, doesn't it?), so click on the icon on the left, which is the Shape layers icon:

Then, if you move further towards the right, you'll come to the Radius option. This option determines how rounded our corners will be. The higher the number, the more rounded they'll be. Lower number, less rounded. Simple stuff. The problem is, you'll never really know for sure what number to enter in for the Radius value until you try one, start drawing the shape, look at how rounded the corners are, and then decide whether you're happy with the result or whether the corner needs to be more or less rounded. I usually start with a value of somewhere between 10-20 pixels, then drag out my shape and decide if I like the corners. Usually I won't, and you probably won't either on your first try, so just enter in a value to start with, drag out the shape, and if you're not happy with the roundness of the corners, simply press Ctrl+Z (Win) / Command+Z (Mac) to undo the shape, then enter a different value into the Radius option and try again.

I've already experimented with this a few times, and I know that a Radius value of about 30 pixels is going to give me the corners I want, so I'm going to enter "30 px" (the "px" stands for "pixels") into the Radius option:

Step 4: Select The Vector Mask Thumbnail In The Layers Palette

We have our Rounded Rectangle Tool selected, we've selected the "Shape layers" option in the Layers palette, and we've entered in a "Radius" value that will determine how rounded our corners will be. We're ready to drag out our shape. First though, we need to make sure the vector mask is selected, so back in the Layers palette, click on the vector mask thumbnail to select it. You'll see a white highlight box appear around the thumbnail, which let's us know that the vector mask is selected:

Step 5: Drag Out The Shape

All we have to do now is drag out our shape. Even though it's going to look to us like we're drawing the shape on the image itself, what we're really doing is drawing it on the vector mask, and when we're done, the only part of our photo that will remain visible is the area inside the shape. Everything outside of the shape will be hidden. Go ahead and drag out your rounded rectangle shape. If you want to keep everything in the photo and simply round off the corners, start in the top left corner of the photo and drag your mouse down to the bottom right. If you'd rather use the shape to crop away part of the photo as well as give it rounded corners, simply drag your shape around the area you want to keep.

If you need to reposition your shape as you're dragging, hold down your spacebar, then drag the shape into its new location. Release the spacebar when you're done and continue dragging out the shape.

Here, I've dragged out my rounded rectangle just inside the edges of the photo. You can see the rounded corners of the shape, which will become the rounded corners of the photo itself in a moment:

Release your mouse button when you're happy with your shape, and instantly, your photo is "masked" to the shape thanks to the vector mask, and the corners of the photo are now rounded:

Let's finish things off by adding a border to our shape.