Are you on the hunt for some quick additional effects to pump some fun into your photo? Pixlr X has rolled out a cool collection of liquid borders now available in the tool sidebar. Check out my tutorial down below to get a quick grasp on how to replicate effects for your own photo projects.
Here’s a quick preview of what you’ll need to do:
Launch Pixlr X and create a new document with a photo of your choice
Pre-resize the photo for your document to avoid any lag in your browser
Select Element in the left toolbar and then Border when the sidebar pops out
Choose Liquid and you’ll see an array of fun liquid borders to play around with
Designing Steps
Launch Pixlr X and pre-resize your chosen photo.
I went with the photo below by Anthony Ginsbrook on Unsplash. Next, choose Add Element and click on Border.
Choose the liquid borders to your liking and experiment to fit your photo! Note that these borders were created with a center-focus photo in mind. So if your photo has a focus on the sides where the liquid borders cover it, don’t worry! You might want to try a more minimal approach, like adjusting the transparency with the available slider.
There are some cool tricks you can try out once you get the hang of adjusting the slider. Start with layering liquid borders (or any other additional effect) over each other, for example. You can also add overlay effects like bokeh, dust or even gradients on top of your original photo layer, but keep the liquid border on top.
Here’s a quick guide on how I worked on mine below:
Add a Gradient overlay to the photo
Place a layer of Dust effects on top
Make the Liquid Border layer stay on top of the rest
Don’t forget that you can customize the Blend Mode of each layer, as well as their transparencies. Experiment with blends like Screen and Overlay for best results, and others on the list too!
As there’s a lot of white space surrounding the subject in my chosen photo, I decided to layer on another liquid border. I went with a transparency of 78%, and it looks perfect.
So I downplayed the gradient and lighting effects for more dust effects and bokeh-ish styles. Et voila! This is my finished result right here:
BONUS: I threw in a smug-lookin’ llama for a splash of extra cool. Which one looks better?
