basic feathering

[scroce]

this question is so basic it hurts me to ask, but here it goes.

I have a jpg - all I want to do is fade the left and right edges of it, (called feathering, right?), so that the image seems to fade in from the left, becomes full, and fades out on the right. In other words, I don't want the hard edges - top and bottom hard edges I do want, but not left and right.

every time I choose edit>feather, nothing happens - what the heck am i doing wrong? I know I've done this before! arrrgh!

I am a nobody, and nobody is perfect; therefore, I am perfect.

 

[scroce]

I worked around it by adding two white rectangles feathering them, and overlaying them over the edges of the photo - but is that the best way?

I am a nobody, and nobody is perfect; therefore, I am perfect.

 

[jonathanku]

Another way to do it is to add a mask. See "add mask" in the dropdown menu at the top of the Layers panel (select the relevant layer first!)

I think the mask has to be a bitmap, (not a vector rectangle or something). It seems that a black in the mask makes the masked object transparent, and white give it full opacity. So a mask that fades from black to white to black (in the right areas) would give you a fade-in/fade-out effect.

Jonathan

 

[scroce]

thanks jonathan - will try that next time i'm noodling with graphics, which is often.

This is the problem with not being a graphic designer 24x7

I am a nobody, and nobody is perfect; therefore, I am perfect.

 

[wiredwoman]

Why not use the feather effect?

Select object (any object) using Select Tool.
Double click it, marquee tool should now be activated.
YOu need to Activate Properties Panel CTRL + f3 to see your options. (PP should just always be open, IMHO)
Choose Style > Normal
AND then EDGE > FEATHER.

You can scale your feather edge from 1 to 100.
You can slect pixels at edge and pull them away. Do a few rows of pixels at a time. Practice with it, it's one of the bet feather tools in any graphics program.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am woman, watch me code.
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Why am I in this hand basket and where are we going?

 

[scroce]

looks like I didn't mention that I'm using an old version of fireworks - version 3, to be exact

Ctrl F3 doesn't seem to do anything, what are IMHO and PP? -

I've got the optimize/object/stroke/fill/effect window, but nothing seems to match up with Style>Normal>edge>feather sequence.

I am a nobody, and nobody is perfect; therefore, I am perfect.