I wanted to start threads in the digi area where we can ask questions. Then when someone needs to do something, voila! Here's the answer.
So here's the first one:
How do I blurr the edges to make a layout look like this: (see how the edges are feathered or blurred? i know it's hard to see, small jpg) is it done on the photo or paper??
TIA!! BTW: this pic was taken from the ScrapGirls forum from one of their galleries, beautiful pic and layout. But I couldn't ask them how to do it, because I guess I'm only allowed 1 PM per day...
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tn_gallery_14297_3218_70911.jpg (6.13 KiB) Viewed 753 times
If this is a digi LO and I am assuming it is, I would have blurred the edges of the photos and placed them on the paper.
How to? Well I would have taken a copy of the photo, (so I wouldn't mess up the original), and used the Marquee tool to outline the oval shape, and then selected inverse and deleted the background.
Then with the Background as a transparency I would have used the Blurr tool and smudged the edges. Then layer the photo over the paper.
Hope it works for you, and maybe someone more proficient has a better way?
Photo masks do the same thing, but I'm not at home and able to open one to tell you how it works. There are some wonderful freebies of photo masks available.
Jean, can you give us a simple tutorial on how they work?
I haven't mastered feathering, but I can get it done. Chris R told me how, but I don't have that PM any more, or else I'd forward it.
You can either do it with the photo itself, or if the photo is a layer by itself, that will work too. Do like Holly said and start with the selection tool in whatever shape you want. There is a "feather" number up on the tool bar, and that seems to indicate how far out the blur will go. Then you do also like she said and choose select inverse and delete. As long as you're focused on only the photo layer, you won't delete anything but the edges of the photo.
The only thing that I don't understand is, on the layer menu, there is also a "Feather" option. And I don't know what that does separate from setting that feather number in the toolbar and deleting the inverse selection. I even have a book that calls itself "the missing manual", and it doesn't cover what that menu item does either. But the select inverse and delete should give you what you want.
OK, here are the notes that I have for this task. They work with CS3. I don't promise they'll work with anything else...
• Using the rectangular selection tool, draw a line on the inside of your photo, near where you want to have the fade.
• Go to Select>Modify>Feather
• Set the feather radius for some number, like 125 or 200.
• Go to Select>Inverse to select the OUTSIDE of your selected area ***Important, but easily forgotten step***
• Hit delete, and you can hit delete more than once, to make the feathered area greater and the photo smaller.
LadyJaine wrote:OK, here are the notes that I have for this task. They work with CS3. I don't promise they'll work with anything else...
• Using the rectangular selection tool, draw a line on the inside of your photo, near where you want to have the fade.
• Go to Select>Modify>Feather
• Set the feather radius for some number, like 125 or 200.
• Go to Select>Inverse to select the OUTSIDE of your selected area ***Important, but easily forgotten step***
• Hit delete, and you can hit delete more than once, to make the feathered area greater and the photo smaller.
And there you have it.
Jean that sounds easy!! Thanks! I used the invert today on the B&W photo when I took out color! Thanks!
You can actually use any selection tool, it doesn't have to be the rectangular one. You can select an oval or some funky hand drawn shape. If your photo is already in a layout, you just need to make sure that the layer with the photo is selected before you hit the delete key.
Did you know you can draw your selection on any layer? As long as you switch the active layer to the desired one before you specify the action to be taken, it doesn't matter. I could go so far as to draw my selection on a different file, move it over to the file I want to work on and then select the correct layer and specify the action. I could edit a photo to fit a frame before I've even added the frame to the layout.
I've been banging on my instructions for blurring the edges and I finally figured out what I wasn't doing right. That step that says set feathering for some large number? Nope. Setting it for a number like 35-50 will give a better result. Or, what I think of as a better result. YMMV. Go ahead, try it with a large number, then try it with a smaller number.
A larger number gives you feathering spread out away from the marching ants. A smaller number 'concentrates' all that feathering close to the marching ants.
BTW, this works with the rounded rectangle tool, too. I like that effect best. If you use the rounded rectangle tool, you are drawing a path. You must change that path to a selection to get marching ants. There are many ways to do that. I like to click on the Paths tab in the Layers palette. Then I right click on the work path and go to Make Selection. You'll get a pop-up window that will allow you to set the feathering. It won't show until you select inverse and hit the delete key, but for me, it works. Remember, I'm using CS3. I can't test this and refine my directions for other versions or applications.
Thanks, that make sense. I also tried another brush, where I wanted the effect of falling leaves, the number was too high, looked messy, but set the number lower, and it looked like falling leaves on my picture!
There are some wonderful freebies of photo masks available.