blending the edges of a photo into the paper

[hollandnancy]

I see some lovely layouts where the edges of a photo are softly blended into the background paper so that only the focal point of the photo (such as a face) can be seen and there is no clear line where the photo and paper become one. Could anyone explain how this is done. Thank you.

[elenasworld]

I am not sure what Program you use, but I use Photoshop.
What I like to do is select my photo/image that I want to soften. Then I adjust the "feather" setting, the more pixels, the more that will be taken away. I also adjust the opacity from 100% down (this just takes some playing around to find what you like). Then hit delete.

If you want a certain shape, try using the lasso tool or change the marquee tool to a circle. I will often expand or contract the edge, then adjust the amount of feather. If you hit delete and wipe out your photo, go back a step and "select inverse"

I am sure there are lots of ways to do this.
Maybe someone else also has a favorite method

[tweederbug]

I always just add the picture and then erase around the picture with a square brush that I have. I adjust the opacity to get the blended in look. I use CS2 but I am sure it can be used with any program. I hope that this helps you some way. Let us know if you need anymore help. Someone is always here to help.

[ABitDaffy]

Here's a tutorial about how to do it (it's written for PSP, but I know people who use Elements and Photoshop have been able to follow it for their programs, too).

This tutorial is about blending a photo into the background, but you could use just the first part of it to accomplish blurring the edges of a photo.

http://www.godigitalscrapbooking.com...background.pdf

Hope it helps!

[Victoria32]

I use the feathering option to get the soft blended edge effect. I also do other blending where I use the whole photo and ajust blend modes and opacity settings to blend the entire photo into the background. I use PSE 7.

[hollandnancy]

thank you so much for all the suggestions. I've tried several and am very happy with the results. I really appreciate all of you taking the time to help me. Nancy