[thelist] photoshop blending

[Jono Young]

I'd suggest a layer mask for both the top and bottom of the image(s).  In
simple steps, here's how:
1.  Select the layer the sky and beach photo is on.
2.  Go to Layer>Layer Properties..., enter "Sky" and hit OK
2.  With "Sky" selected, go to Layer>Duplicate Layer... ,name your new layer
"beach"  and hit OK
3.  You now have the photo on 2 layers, one named "beach" and the other
named "sky".  Drag the "Sky" layer to the top of your document, and drag the
"beach" layer to the bottom.
4.  Press "D" to set your foreground/background colors to their Black and
White default
5. Select the "sky" layer, in the layers palette.
6.  Go to Layer>Add Layer Mask>Reveal All
7.  Press "G" to select the Gradient tool
8.  Now, in the"sky" layer, with the Gradient tool selected, click just
above where the sky meets the ground in the photo and drag straight down,
stop dragging below where the sky ends.  Ta-da, the rest of the photo belwo
where you stopped dragging fades away...hopefully.  You should get an idea
of how the mask tool works after this.  If you aren't happy with the result,
just Undo it (Edit>Undo, or control/command + Z) and try again.
9.  As for the "beach" layer, follow the same process, but this time drag up
from where the beach meets the sky.

Note:  Black hides the photo, white shows the photo when using the gradient
tool, with a layer mask.  Try this too:  Select the paintbrush tool (B) and
with your layer mask selected, try painting on the photo with black and then
white.  When you paint with black, the photo with be masked out/disappear,
if you paint back over that same area with white, it will reappear/unmask.

I hope I have been clear enough.


On 9/5/03 2:25 PM, "Andrew" <andrew at humanbehaviour.co.uk> wrote:

> 
> 
> Hi All
> 
> I am playing around with an image and am trying to get the middle portion of
> an
> image to blend/fade at the edges.
> 
> The image is a beach with blue sky.  I am trying to achieve part of the bottom
> beach at the bottom and part of the top of the sky at the top.  It is 9.7mm H
> and 210mm W (landscape) so that the middle is white (for text) but I dont want
> the clean edges i get by just cutting out the middle.  It would be nice to
> have
> the full picture with the middle faded or just blended leaving white?
> 
> Anyone has a tip how to do this please?
> 
> Andrew

-- 
Jono Young
Designer/Illustrator
Brook Group, LTD
8231 Main Street
Ellicott City, MD 21043
T: 410-465-7805 xt: 16
<http://www.brookgroup.com/>