Create a Wood Frame for a Photo

Open the photo you want to frame with wood. I am using the flower photo below:

First you need to add extra canvas space around the photo to hold your frame. The amount of space you add depends on how large you want your frame to be. Go up to the Image menu at the top of the screen and choose Image > Canvas Size.

When the Canvas Size dialog box appears, enter how much space you want to add around the image. I want a fairly thick frame for my photo, so I'm going to enter a value of 1.5 inches for both the Width and Height options. Make sure you have the Relative option checked as well:

Click OK to add space around your photo. Add a new blank layer above the two layers by clicking the new layer icon on the layer's palette:

Nothing happens in the document window, but we can see in the Layers palette that Photoshop has added a new blank layer for you and gave it the descriptive name "Layer 1":

Now you will fill this layer with a pattern. You will use the light wood pattern shown below. You will need to define the pattern as well as save it using the preset manager. To review how to do this click here.

With "Layer 1" selected, go up to the Edit menu at the top of the screen and choose Fill to open the Fill dialog box.

For the Contents option at the top, choose Pattern from the drop-down menu to the right of the word "Use". Then, in the Blending section in the bottom half of the dialog box, set the Mode option to Normal and make sure the Opacity option is set to 100%. Drop down the Custom Pattern list and choose the Light Wood pattern you previously defined and saved to your patterns folder.

Click OK to exit out of the dialog box. Photoshop will fill the entire layer with the wood texture, temporarily blocking the photo from view:

Your layer palette should now look like this:

Select the wood fill photo on layer 1 by clicking on the layer to select it. It will appear blue in the layer palette. This is the layer you want to make a selection on. Click the eye icon to the left of the thumbnail to hide it so you can view the flower photo on the layer below it. With the Rectangular Marquee tool , then drag a selection around the flower photo on the layer below. Remember you are making this selection on the wood fill layer.

Click on the eye icon on the layers palette to unhide the pattern fill. You will now see the selected are on the wood fill pattern.

Next click the delete key to get rid of the inner portion of the wood selection.

Now we will invert the selection. Select > Inverse to select just the wood frame:

Now we need to give it a 3D appearance by placing a bevel style on it. On the layers palette select the Special Effects icon then select Bevel and Emboss to open the Styles Layer dialog box.

At the Layer Style dialog box experiment with the different settings. I excepted the default settings shown below:

Ctrl + D to deselect the selection. Here is how my photo turned out.