Blurring the edges of an image is quite often used to create a smooth transition of an image to a solid background and for joining together dissimilar collage elements. Sometimes this technique is used when styling antique photographs. In addition, blurring the edges is a good way to distract attention from objects that spoil the image without cropping the image itself. You can perform such an operation using the tools of the Photoshop program.
Necessary
- - Photoshop program;
- - image.
Instructions
Step 1
To give the edges of the picture a blur effect, you need to create a large area of semi-transparent pixels on the border of the image. This can be done by erasing part of the image with the Erazer Tool, hiding the edges of the image with a mask, creating a feathered selection and deleting the selected part of the image. To process an image using one of these methods, load it into Photoshop.
Step 2
Make the picture editable. To do this, click on the layer with the image and select the Layer from Background option from the context menu.
Step 3
The most obvious way to get blurry edges is to erase them. Select the Erazer Tool and adjust the brush diameter so that it is no less than a third of the image's height. Set the Hardness parameter to zero.
Step 4
Drag the tool along the edges of the picture while holding down the left mouse button. If too much of the image is erased, undo the last few actions in the History palette and reduce the diameter of the brush.
Step 5
The same effect can be achieved by creating a layer mask. To do this, click on the Add layer mask button, which is visible at the bottom of the layers palette. Activate the Brush Tool and adjust it in the same way as the Erazer Tool.
Step 6
Make black the main color by clicking on the top colored square in the tool palette. Activate the layer mask by clicking on the white rectangle to the right of it and paint over the edges of the mask with black. When blurring the edges in this way, you do not change the image itself and, if necessary, you can copy the layer, remove the mask from it and get the original image without blurred edges.
Step 7
A good way to create an area of semi-transparent pixels is to feather the selection. To do this, select the part of the image that will not be changed. This can be done with the Rectangular Marquee Tool or the Elliptical Marquee Tool. If you need to create a selection of a more complex shape, use the Polygonal Lasso tool.
Step 8
To feather the edges of the selection, use the Feather option from the Select menu. The value that you need to enter in the Feather Radius field depends on the linear dimensions of the picture. The larger the feather radius, the smoother the edges will be blurred. However, if you set this parameter too high, you can get not blurry, but semi-transparent edges right up to the border of the picture.
Step 9
Use the Inverse option from the Select menu to invert the selection and remove the selected part of the image by pressing the Delete key.
Step 10
Save the blurred image using the Save As option from the File menu.
