Feature: onOne Software Photo Frame 3.1 - $399
Idea: Full featured tool for creating unique frames for your images

I must admit I have a penchant for creating my own frames - since it is very easy to make a rectangular mask around your image (frame on inside) or expand the canvas (frame on outside)- and then just whale away at the frame with texture, filters, bevels, drop shadows and the like. Okay - I am guilty as charged for doing that in the above image. So it was worth my while to download the Photo Frame software from onOne and see how much the professionals could improve on and/or speed up my frame creating process.

The Basic Photo Frame Interface

Photo Frame is like a number of other plugins - it opens into its own menu driven Window:

And the layout of the Photo Frame screen, especially the dialogs, reminds users of the Photoshop interface. The first (1) dialog, Frames with Texture and Preset tabs, is where users choose one or more frames for their image. The second (2) dialog, Instant Frames, is a roll-your-own frame creation dialog with optional tabs for Edge and Bevel settings. The third (3)dialog, really should be named Properties because it allows users to change the basic properties of the active Frame such as size, color of frame, orientation, etc.

Finally, there is a command bar (4) along the bottom that allows the user to Apply to New Layer the current frame design (recommended method) or Apply (which overlays the current frame on top of your image. This is the major drawback to Photo Frame - it is a Inner or Frame on the inside of your image plugin only. This means that you must sacrifice a portion of your image to the frame. There is a simple work around - increase the canvas size (Image | Canvas Size menu item) to approximate what you think will be the size of the frame you will be using. Make the color of the enlarged canvas the same as the inner or dominant color of your frame.

Working with Photo Frame

There is another small complaint with Photo Frame - applying a frame to an image is not dead simple. I first tried dragging and dropping my chosen frame on to the image. No go. Then I looked for an icon to add the frame to the image. No Cigar. So then I tried dragging and dropping the frame outline onto the Frames tab - still no go. So finally I read the manual. onONe has a ShowMeHow menu command for all us dolts that refuse to ask for directions or read the manual.

This menu item has a handy video which shows you very quickly how to get started using the Frames - you simply double click the frame you want added to your image and Photo Frame just add it to the Frames layer-like dialog. User can add several frames to achieve a unique combo effect - the Background tab (see (3) in the screenshot above), allows users to change the Opacity of the selected frame from the default 100% down to 0%.

While here at the Background tab, note that you can also change the Size, Blur or Orientation of the frame among other things. Also there are tabs for additional effects such as adding a a inner Border, Glow or Shadow to your border (the latter I found the most useful). So photofinishers have not just 500 frame templates(and the opportunity create themselves or buy more) but also the ability to change the properties of the frames in order to get the exact look they want.

Instant Frames and own Frame Creations

The Instant Frame option (see (2) in the screen shot above) allows users to create their own frames right within Photo Frame. Here is an example using the same image:

Here we have used the Oval shape from the Instant Frame pulldown but could have chosen star, polygon and half a dozen other basic templates. Then choosing the Edge tab, it was easy to add some stylized wave and brush strokes with user determined height and width. Finally I added a bevel again with customized look - voila in less than 5 minutes I had my own instant frame which I could save as a Preset for reuse later.

But Photo Frame offers even more options for rolling your own. I took an Wall painting image into Photoshop and added a bit of flair to it with some Photoshop Filter Gallery effects. Then I made sure the background fill was white, made a rectangular mask with big wide borders, and finally Edit | Cut the mask out to create my own frame template as seen below.

Now all I had to do in Photo Frame was add the image to the list of frames - under File | Import Frame and voila I had a new frame template ready for use in the plugin. So I did just that as shown in the following screenshot below:

Notice what Photo Frame did - it resized my own template to fit the image (including a portrait oriented image). And all the properties such as Size, Blur, Orientation work with my template. I was impressed and delighted because this means that I can quickly create my own frame templates and expect them to be fully functional in Photo Frame.

Summary

There are 4 or 5 other features like Textures, Frame Grid and Glow among others that further add to the capabilities of Photo Frame. However, there is an immediate caution on using Photo frame - I could not get the plugin to work with any of Corel PaintShop Pro, IrfanView, Ulead Photo Impact or Xara despite their support for most Adobe .8bf plugins. These are among the photo editors I use fairly frequently. So if you are a none Adobe Photoshop user, be cautioned.

In fact this is the essence of Photo Frame - some very useful capabilities particularly for photo-finishers who do lots of framing and would like to add their special touch. But frames directly added on an image have mixed reactions. I know of some camera clubs that have outlawed the use of frames directly applied to images because they take away from the original. Yet these same clubs allow cropping of images and matting that also crops the image.

And Photo Frame does not help the controversy by providing outer frames (i.e. frames that do not cut off any of the original image). My guess this plugin will appeal to the photo finisher that does hundreds of images per month and wants to apply quick and/or unique frames to a sizable portion of those images. Photo Frame certainly delivers on making both tasks - creation of unique custom frames and applying them quick and easy to do.