How to Add Stickers, Frames, and Overlays in PhotoDirector

PhotoDirector's Elements tools add stickers, frames, and light overlays to a photo from ready-made sets. Animated stickers can keep moving when you export a video or GIF. Use them to dress up a social post or put a sale badge on a product photo without designing anything yourself.

Stickers sit on top of your photo as separate pieces you can move, turn, and fade, so they suit playful touches and seasonal posts.

Click Open at the top left of the canvas and choose where your photo comes from, such as your computer or your PhotoDirector library. Then, on the Guided & GenAI tab, click Elements in the icon rail on the left and select Stickers.

Business Stickers, right below it, holds sale, coupon, and holiday stickers for product and marketing photos, and the steps are the same for both.

The panel opens on Static Stickers, with sets such as Halloween, Winter, Black Friday, and Autumn. Click See All beside a set to view everything in it.

When you want another tool later, the arrow beside Stickers at the top of the panel takes you back to the Elements list.

Open the All Content menu under the tabs and select a theme to see only that set. The list runs from holidays like Mother's Day and Christmas Vol. 2 to Sport and Football Fever.

Click a tile, and the sticker lands in the center of your photo. You can also drag a tile straight onto the photo. A tile with a download arrow saves the sticker to your library the first time you click it. This example uses the pink cat ears from the Halloween set.

Drag the four-way arrow below the sticker to move it, and drag the circular arrow beside it to rotate it. To resize it, drag a corner of its box. To add a second sticker, click another tile, and the first one stays where you left it. This example puts the ears on the cat and an Autumn stamp at the upper right.

With a sticker selected, use Sticker Settings on the right to change how it looks. When two stickers overlap, right-click one and choose Bring to Front or Send to Back. To take your stickers off and start again, click Clear at the bottom of the left panel.

Click the Animated Stickers tab at the top of the panel, then click a tile the same way you added a static sticker. The sets here include Halloween, Thanksgiving, Winter, and Black Friday. This example uses the ghost from the Halloween set.

Drag Speed in Sticker Settings to set how fast the sticker plays. The slider becomes available when you select an animated sticker.

Click Export at the top of the window. With an animated sticker on the photo, you choose between New Photo File for a still and New Video/GIF File to keep the movement. With only static stickers, the Save As window opens straight away. Either way, PhotoDirector saves a new file and adds it to your library, and your original photo stays as it was.

For a video or GIF, set the output folder and the file type, then click Produce. A video also lets you set the aspect ratio, quality profile, and duration, and a GIF lets you set the image size.

To keep your stickers editable for later, choose the .PHI project type in the Save As window. For more control over the photo file, such as its name and size, choose File > Save As (More Options) instead.

For the file types you can save, see PhotoDirector's supported file formats.

A frame borders the whole photo, so use one to give a social post a finished look.

Go back to the Elements list and select Frame Templates.

The frames are numbered in the Default group, and you can scroll the panel to see more. Click one to apply it to your photo. This example uses frame 04, a pink border with a #follow tag.

Drag the Zoom slider under the frames to change how the frame fits your photo. To remove the frame, click Clear at the bottom of the panel.

When the fit looks right, click Export at the top of the window.

Overlays lay a light effect over the whole photo, so you can add a warm glow or a lens flare to a shot.

Go back to the Elements list and select Overlays.

Choose the Static Overlays or Animated Overlays tab, then browse sets such as Light Leak, Lens Flare, Light Flood, and Flicker. To see one set at a time, use the All Content menu. A tile with a download arrow saves the overlay to your library the first time you click it.

Click a tile to apply the overlay. This example uses the first Light Leak tile, which washes the cafe in a warm orange glow.

To keep part of the photo in its original color, select the brush under Select a brush in Overlay Settings and paint over that area. Size sets the width of the brush, Feather softens its edge, and Strength sets how much of the effect it clears. Check Fit to edges when you want the brush to follow the edges of an object.

With people or pets in the photo, click the first icon under Select a brush to clear the overlay from them automatically. The arrows at the right swap that selection, so only the people or pets keep the effect. If you clear too much, select the eraser beside the brush and paint the effect back.

Under Settings, drag Opacity to soften the effect. Use Rotate and Flip to bring the light in from a different side. Check Enable template resize when you want to resize the overlay or drag it to a new spot on your photo. Speed is for animated overlays, so it stays dimmed for this one.

Click Export at the top of the window to save your photo. With an animated overlay, choose New Video/GIF File to keep the movement. The Stickers steps above explain the rest of the save options.

We tested these steps in PhotoDirector 365 version 18.0.10 on Windows.