Inner Bevel

The "Inner Bevel" feature provides some remarkable 3-D effects. It is quite a complex tool with many parameters that interact with one another, but it is also very interactive. There are a number of presets that come with it, but it is fun to play with. In this case we will be putting a frame around a very red car shot at Soda Jerks in St. Albert, Alberta - a place where car enthusiasts gather.

First we must expand the canvas size to make room for the shadow. Under the "Image" menu, select "Canvas Size".

We are going to put the beveled frame all the way around the image, so we need some space in which to do it.

In this case I wanted a big fat glossy red frame to match the car. To get this, one must set the background colour to red in the colour palette.

I have a 320 x 247 pixel image and as you can see on the left, I added 40 pixels to make the width 360 and the height 287.

In this case I check the boxes to center the image both horizontally and vertically.

The "Inner Bevel" is on the "Effects" menu, "3-D Effect" sub-menu.

Click on the "Magic Wand" tool, set it for a "Match mode" of "Hue" with a "Tolerance" of zero and also no "Feather".

Red car with big red border area where a beveled frame will be placed.

Now there is a 30 pixel area of red all around the image.

Click somewhere in the red area to select it. Since there is red on the edge of the picture, I put a thin black line around the image. This protects the car from being selected.

Unlike the "Drop Shadow", we do not invert the selection this time.

"Inner Bevel" is on the "3-D sub-menu off the "Effects" menu.

I started by approximating the angle of the light in the actual photo with the "Angle" and "Elevation" controls.

I wanted it to be quite glossy, so set the "Shininess" to 90. I wanted a fat roll, so I selected the half-round shape under "Bevel".

"Ambience" sets the overall lightness, and was fine on zero. "Intensity" sets the level of brightness of the shine.

Note that the settings can be saved and used later. There are a number of presets that come with the program as well.

And here we have the final result with a big fat rude frame.

Of course one can be as subtle or as bold as one wishes. One can also select an area near the edge of the picture itself, invert the selection and use the image for its own border.

Other than resizing the canvas, he steps are the same.