Many people like a border around their photos. The way to do this isn’t obvious in Lightroom, because there’s no border option when you export photos. One trick is to do it through the Print module. Here’s how:
- In the Library module, select the photo you want to have a border, then switch to the Print module.
- In the Template Browser on the left side of the application, select a Single Image template the correlates to the size you want the photo to be, such as 4 x 6 or 8 x 10.
- In the Image Settings panel on the right side of the application, select Stroke Border. Specify a Width of the desired size (such as 10 points) and click the color swatch to choose a color, such as white.
- In the Print Job panel, choose Print To > JPEG File. Specify the resolution and other options (sharpening, JPEG quality, etc.).
- Click Print to File.
There. You’ve just “exported” a JPEG of your photo with a border. Now you can post it online, upload to a print service, or do whatever you do with JPEGs that have borders.
For additional Help with Print module panels and tools, see Printing photos or, more specifically, Print borders around photos or Specify options in the Print Job panel.
A second way to do it is to create a border effect in Photoshop, and then apply it to your photo in Lightroom as an identity plate. Scott Kelby shows how in the tutorial Adding cool frame borders to your photos. The tutorial is old—for Lightroom 1 and Photoshop CS3—but the principles still apply and you can do it using Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5.1. For another (Lightroom 1) tutorial of this technique, see Sean McCormack’s frames video.
A final way is to use an export plug-in, such as Timothy Ames’s LR/Mogrify 2 plug-in.
