Borders / framing

Chaps,

what are your thoughts? What do you do?

I want to print out a picture or two to put in a clip frame, however, image
is square (MF group!) and I fancy keeping it square. The frame I am using
is not. Therefore in software (not too good at traditional printing) I
produced a thin white ink line around the image followed by a dark red
border (to match a rug in the room but that is not important for this
discussion).

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/gallery/april-2008/ - top two images

I have produced a border this way on another print previously and a friend
made a comment "it looks like you bought a poster / print in a shop".
While flattering in one way - it must be at least slightly competent
technically, I see what he means - can't really put it in words - perhaps
the title I added does it.

Any other ideas? What do you do? I definitely do not want to do anything
tacky looking - found some horrendous stuff with a Google search. Cheesy
beveled effects or images of gilt picture frames! A lot of people seem to
like the brush stroke or large format polaroid torn away edge type
effects - I think I'll stay away for that reason.

Did wonder about just printing the image as a square across the full frame
and just leaving one thick border at the bottom.

Thoughts?

Quick additional question - which of the two images do you prefer, the
original or the crop (top image). I'm wavering between the two.

Thanks,

Pete




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http://www.petezilla.co.uk