Three Ways To Add Borders To Your Photos

Whether it’s for printing, creating PDF monographs or posting online photographers like to add borders to their photos. So today I’m going to show you three different ways you can create borders, using apps like Lightroom Classic, Exposure X and BorderTool Pro. 

How to add a photo border in Lightroom Classic

Most readers are Lightroom Classic users, so it’s helpful to understand what the border creation options are, and how they compare to other apps. It doesn’t have a specific tool like the ones in the other apps mentioned here. But there are still several ways to add a border to photos. Most of them use the Print module, and you’ll be surprised by what you can do with it. 

Technique 1: Black borders

The first method is to go to Post-Crop Vignetting in the Effects panel and set the first five sliders to zero.

That gives you a black rounded border like the one below. It works best on photos with light backgrounds as you can see it more clearly.

Technique 2: Add borders in the Print module

In the Print module use the built-in template 1 Large With Stroke to create a thin inner black border surrounded by a thicker white outer border. It looks like this.

You can change the color and thickness of the inner border in the Image Settings panel. 

I set the maximum width and sampled a color from the photo to create a red inner border. Here’s the result.

This is how you sample a color from your photo. Click the Stroke Border color swatch to bring up the color picker. Move the cursor over one of the color selector panels until it changes to an eyedropper.

Hold the left mouse button down and move the cursor over your photo. Lightroom samples the color under the cursor. Release the mouse button to lock in the selected color.

Technique 3: White borders with multi-photo layouts

You can also create multi-photo layouts with white borders in the Print module, like this. It’s the typical kind of layout you can create there.

You can combine that with a colored inner border.

Technique 4: Change the page background color

So far the the Print module techniques I’ve shown you use white as the page background color. But you can change that to any color you like. Here’s how it works with the 1 Large With Stroke template.

Go to the Page panel, check the Page Background Color box and set the color. You can sample a color from your photo using the technique above.

Do the same with the Stroke Border in Image Settings to set the width and color of the inner border. Here’s what it looks like. To make this border I sampled both the inner and outer border colors from the photo.

You can see an outer white border in the display, but this isn’t included in the file when you export it. It looks like this.

Whichever Print module technique you use, you can export the result as a JPEG file to post online, or use in zines, photo books or PDF monographs. You can also save the layouts you create as Templates to use with other photos. Click the plus icon at the top of the Templates panel to start the process.

How to add borders to photos using plugins and apps

The next level up in photo borders is to use an app like Exposure X, DxO FilmPack or ON1 Photo Raw (most of which you can use as either a standalone app or a Lightroom Classic plugin). I won’t go into too much detail, other than point out some of the possibilities using screenshots. If you have one one of these apps, go ahead and explore the photo border tools to see what you can do with them. If not, then download a trial, explore the options and decide for yourself whether it’s worth buying.

The advantage of these apps is that there’s a vast amount of border options to choose from. For example, in Exposure X you can create a brushed effect border:

A polaroid effect:

Or a vintage effect:

All these options are fully customizable. You can tweak the settings to suit your photo.

Here are some border effects from DxO FilmPack. You can go for an instant film look:

A classic film border:

Or a glass negative look:

There’s less variety than Exposure X, but still some good options.

Who are these apps for?

These apps and plugins are for photographers who like to experiment with adding borders and textures to photos. They’re also useful for emulating film, converting photos to black and white or reproducing analog printing processes like cyanotype and lith. 

How to add borders to photos with BorderTool Pro (Mac only)

BorderTool Pro is an app created by photographer Michael Damböck (click the link to visit the photographer’s website for the details). Please note that it’s Mac only, so if you’re a Windows PC owner you’ll need to use one of the earlier options.

The app creates plain, bold, colorful borders. It’s like using Lightroom Classic’s Print module, but with more options. You get the best results with photos that have bold, graphic compositions.

To use it start by exporting your photo. Then drag it from the folder to the app icon in the Menu bar to start the process of adding a border. When you’re done it saves a new version of your photo, with the border added, alongside the original.

This app has so many features it’s hard to sum them up in a few words. Here are the most important. 

It’s fully customizable. You can adjust border color, thickness and style. You can also switch between single and double borders, and add a drop shadow to the inner border.

It can analyze the colors in the photo and set the border color according to the selected criteria, like Vibrant, Darkest, Lightest and Dominant.

It has presets. You can use the presets, or create your own. 

You can change the aspect ratio of the border. Your photo remains uncropped – the only thing that changes is the border size.

It can convert your photo to black and white, and apply a color frame.

It can batch process photos. Drag and drop as many photos as you want into the app. It analyzes each one individually to apply color harmony settings (Vibrant, Darkest etc.).

You can use it to add borders to your photos when you export them from Lightroom Classic.  Here’s the workflow: 

• Open BorderTool Pro first and make sure you’ve applied the settings you want to use. These are the settings it uses during the export.
• Export your photo from Lightroom Classic. 
• In the Export window go to Post-Processing and set After Export to Open in Other Application. 
• Click the Choose button to select BorderTool Pro.  
• Click the Export button. 

Check the BorderTool Pro page on Michael’s website for the full feature list.

Who is BorderTool Pro for?

BorderTool Pro is for photographers who want to experiment with creating bright, bold frames for their photos. If you like graphic design, you’ll be intrigued by the possibilities and the beautiful use of color.

Here are some examples I created myself.

I’ve embedded a video below where Michael runs through how it works. It’s in German, but if you click the Watch on YouTube button it should open in YouTube and with English audio.

Visit Michael’s website for the full details. The app costs 39€, which is a one off, subscription free price.