Turn a Photo Into a Polaroid with Photoshop Elements

By Sue Chastain, About.com Guide

A few weeks ago, I posted about the Polaroid-o-nizer Web site where you could upload a photo and have it instantly converted to look like a Polaroid. I thought it would be a fun tutorial to show you how you can do this effect on your own with Photoshop Elements. It's a great way to learn about working with layers and layer styles. This is a neat effect for when you want to add a little something to a photo you plan to use on the Web or in a scrapbook layout.

There is also a video version of this tutorial.

To get started, find an image you'd like to use, and open it in the Standard edit mode. If you like, you can use my image to follow along. Download it here: polaroid-start.jpg (right click > Save Target)

If you do use your own image, be sure to do a File > Duplicate and close the original so you don't accidentally overwrite it.

First thing we will do is convert the background to a layer. Double click on the background in the layers palette and name the layer "photo."

Next we make a square selection of the area we want to use for the Polaroid. Select the Rectangular Marquee tool from the toolbox. In the options bar set the mode to "Fixed Aspect Ratio" with width and height both set to 1. This will give us a fixed square selection. Make sure feather is set to 0.

Click and drag a square selection around the focal point of the photo.