I run a photography site, and any photo that's good enough to display deserves a frame. Unfortunately none of the built-in ones ( frames.atn ) are very good, so I've had to experiment and build my own.

I'm hoping people can give me general advice more than specific ... I came up with something that's supposed to look like a mahogany frame and a mat, and it's better than other things I've tried, but something could be better. I can't put my finger on what, other than the reddish brown wood doesn't always work with the photo. I might make a second copy with a pure black frame for that, more metalic...

But I'm hoping people can suggest a few things I won't think up on my own? Being good with a camera doesn't carry over very well toward building a web design.

Examples:
Waterfall, Woods Hike; Glacier National Park (good)
Lee Vining Canyon (bad)
Sunset at White Horse Falls (bad)

A thumbnail of the way it looks with a photo is attached.

You might not like this, as it is quite different to what you've got already, but I like simple stuff like this:

But maybe this is saying "I'm a photo" a little too loudly!

Hey Forest, why not just use layerstyles ? I've created layerstyles for frames that look pretty darn much like wood Somewhere I have a batch of layerstyles that are all meant for making real-looking frames.

Well. I too prefer what gringo did.

If you try and make a realistic frame, you'd end up putting a gradient over the image to make it look like it was behind glass. And that might detract from the photograph.

If you did all but skipped the gradient, it would just look a bad choice over a more simple design.

I have to say, I like Gringo's work, too. It looks like something you might see on display in a more traditional gallery, the brick-and-mortar kind. More of a mat than a frame, and you're right, that does shout "I'm a photo" ... which some people say is a different thing than a snapshot.

LRN - I did all of this with a couple of layers and some effects; the frame is a shape tool layer with a pattern and color overlay, embossing, and whatnot. Most importantly a transparant background, which is still giving me trouble in IE 6.

Back to the "drawing board." Thanks for the advice, everyone!

Why not just add a drop shadow background using CSS (done with an image)? It looks good when done that way, too. Forrest, remember the Digital Photography article you wrote for my directory? It's how we'll be displaying the photo in the article.

It should be up in about a week or two, have lots of things going on right now.