STEP ONE: Open a background image.
"Feathering" blurs the edges of a selection so that it seems to fade away. It is one way to composite images.
To feather a photo:
STEP 1. Using the site below, find a photograph of a landscape and drag it to your desktop. Be sure it is a photograph, not a graphic or clip art. Next, open it in Photoshop (FILE: OPEN). This will be your background photo. Minimize this photo until later in this exercise. http://pics.tech4learning.com/
STEP 2. Next, select a second photo, with a person or animal that you wish to "feather", and open it into Photoshop. Drag it to the background photo. (Hint: Be sure that the two photos match modes. Check Image: Mode, to be sure both are RGB. If not, change to RGB).
STEP 3: Next, use your selection tools (circle , rectangle or lasso) to select an area around the person/animal in your second photo. See example in Step. 3, right)
STEP 4: Go to: SELECT>MODIFY>FEATHER. Type a number in the Feather Radius box (try 10, 25, or 50). This is the number of pixels that you want feathered. Click OK (you will not see any change at this point).
STEP 5. Next, go to the Copy command (EDIT: COPY) and immediately to Paste (EDIT:PASTE). NOW, go to the LAYERS menu, and turn off the lowest photo layer. The feathered selection should remain.
STEP 6: Use your MOVE tool to drag your feathered image layer into your background photo.
STEP 7. Now that you know how to feather, repeat the process until you get a good result!
STEP 8: Experiment with different pixel settings! Experiment with altering the feathered photo by transforming it (scale, rotate, etc.) or adding color (variations, curves, etc.). Use the magic wand or eraser to select areas to delete, as necessary!
STEP 9: Save your best two feathering efforts and take a screen shot of each. Put it in your PowerPoint Portfolio. You may use two slides, and one BCR.
SAVE your files as: YLNIfeather1 & YLNI feather2.
