Borders - Newbie seeking advice please

peteruk

peteruk

peteruk

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27 Jan 2005
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Nr. Norwich, Norfolk
Dear photographic bods of OcUK,

I'm quite new to photography -having had a 400D for about 5 months now - and have come across the concept of putting borders on my final edits, which I've never thought to do before, but seems quite common place.

However, I'm not sure on a few things about them (well, quite a few :o) so could appreciate some pointers:

-I'm guessing there are some rules on when they are and are not suitable, such as (and I'm entirely stabbing in the dark here) when you have an 'infinite' border such as a sea or sky on one or more sides?

- What thickness is ideally best? I'm supposing it'd be based on the output's intended size?

- What kind of colour is usually best? I'd imagine it would be something that either compliments or maybe even contrasts the content in the image? I've also seen some bitonal or sometimes even more 'double+ borders' which I imagine have a similar intention.

Basically, any advice on borders would be extremely useful. I'll now also be a good noob and use google. :D

Thanks to any wise pointers! :)
 
I am undecided about borders.

I used them for every photo I took when I first got into photography about 2 years ago, regardless of whether the image needed it or not. Then I got lazy and I just couldn't be bothered with doing them anymore, and now I much prefer working with just the image itself.

The borders I did do though were a 1 or two pixel wide white border, with a thicker black border around the edge, like so:

3190554385_951cb099a4_o.jpg


3190555775_61b4cb8214_o.jpg


I do however quite like landscape shots with a big thick black border and a nice thin san serif typeface in the bottom of the border with the name of the location.

Not sure if this is any help, but at the very least the above borders are an idea for you :)
 
ScarySquirrel said:
I am undecided about borders.

I used them for every photo I took when I first got into photography about 2 years ago, regardless of whether the image needed it or not. Then I got lazy and I just couldn't be bothered with doing them anymore, and now I much prefer working with just the image itself.

The borders I did do though were a 1 or two pixel wide white border, with a thicker black border around the edge, like so:

(Ace example 1)

(Ace example 2)

I do however quite like landscape shots with a big thick black border and a nice thin san serif typeface in the bottom of the border with the name of the location.

Not sure if this is any help, but at the very least the above borders are an idea for you :)
Click to expand...

That's of great use ScarySquirrel, thank you! :) I understand now there are no real hard and fast rules.

I hear what you're saying about the borders on images as a place for the title text. It occured to me when I have made postcards out of some of my landscape shots, I've just made a border by making the coloured-card-backing slightly larger than the image, so have theoretically been using borders on some prints all along!

I very much like your style there, reminds me of that chain of motivational posters. I'll now trying knocking out some of mine in the same style, then branch out to a lil experimentation.

I can understand how some people could view them as excessive processing/unneccesary etc, but I'm inclined to think it's a personal thing - I have tended to lean towards more 'stylised' editing rather than more 'natural' editing, and I think my attitude to borders should reflect this also.

Thanks for the input everyone :)
 
i like borders to "frame" a photo (obviously hehe) but some sites have light backgrounds, others dark, so i find having it framed how i prefer (double border, one thinner, one thicker) with white & black interchanged depending on colour of intended background and photo colour scheme. Doing this means the photo is mounted in a way that it was intended to be...

basically as above (but with the black & white swapped depending on photo/website solours - oh, and my thin border is a bit thicker)

Hope that makes sense?

That said you've been doing it longer than i (started in May) so take my advice with a pinch of salt :o
 
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