I have learn a bit more on "Borders" as I seem to get them wrong either too dark, too light, too thick and too thin, maybe one day I will get it right.
Does anyone know the rule for borders (When to use a dark,light,thin or thick one)
I'd suggest a simple answer of not using a border at all unless there is a dark to medium color in the picture that you want to emphasize by putting it in a narrow, single colored border. Consider that the photos here are only 640 by 480 or smaller -- wide borders are too wide (IMO).
e.g., a photo with a blue sky and dark blue sea could have a narrow border using the same blue as the sea.
I've learnt my lesson in last couple of challenges - unless it's really called for, don't use a border :)
If you do make it simple small and unobtrusive.
The first thing you notice in the butterfly photo is the border - and that's going to take marks away from you, because it puts people's focus on that rather than the subject matter.
I generally use either white or black borders, which are mostly fairly thin.
In a photo that is fairly dark, such as yours, a white border can help bring out a bit of depth, I feel. Particularly on DPC, I think a white border has to be a reasonable thickness to be worth adding. I would probably use 8-12 pixels width (on each side).
I tend to use black borders to 'hold in' a photo that is light, or has shades that match the website background. Hence on my own website I will normally add a 1-2 pixel black border for photos that has very light coloured skies, against my white background.
That's what I do, anyway. Hope it gives you some ideas.
For what it's worth, when it comes to borders, I don't think a border should distract from any part of the photograph. Your photo was strong as a photograph and the first thing my eye is drawn to in it is the border instead of the subject. There are lots of really 'neat' border effects availalbe, but you should ask yourself what your goal is with the image. Do you want the image to be the most eye-catching part or should it be the border?
Always ask yourself WHY when you do something to your photo, whether it be post processing changes or borders. You should be able to come up with "because it ehnances ___________ " or something to that effect. You won't always come up with something that really works, but you will learn from it in the end :)
I use borders generally when I cut something off. Kind of an unwritten message to the viewers "I meant to do this". The other time I think its an option is when you have a black background. Its good practice to put a thin, light colored line inside of a think black border just to say "it stops here". Simple is good in these cases. IMO, there are some pictures where it really helps. The majority, I don't think it helps or hurts the image some. I'm generally not a grader of borders, like them or not, unless it overwhelms the image. I'm not against borders, but you really should decide why you need the border, like John said.
For my prints I generally use a border to fill-out the image to the print size to avoid resampling.
For DPC, I've usually gone to a simpler border, usually a 2-pixel line with a sampled color, and then maybe ten pixels of black. I rarely use a white border, but maybe I'll try it now ....
