fading edges around a picture 1

[vivendi]

Hello,
In photoshop i have an image wich is 400 by 400 and the background is black. I've placed a smaller picture in the center of the black background. What i want to do now is fading the edges of the picture a little, so it doesnt go from black to the picture but from black slowly to the picture.
I hope someone can explain me how to do this.
Thanks for any help.

 

[TrojanWarBlade]

Select the whole picture (the smaller one) and click the qickmask.
Next blur the quickmask enough to soften the edge and click the quickmask off.
Finally, cut the selection out (you might need it inverted first and so a little trial and error and/or undo might help here).
That should leave varying amounts of the black background showing through.
Adjust to taste!



Trojan.

 

[rickwells]

There are many ways to acheive this. Here is just one:-

Your picture should be on a seperate layer above the black background.
Command/click on the picture layer in the layers palette to create a selection around the picture.
In the menu bar at the top of P/shop choose SELECT>INVERSE.
Then SELECT>FEATHER and in the dialogue box enter a value - try 15 pixels.
Now press the backspace/delete key and the edge of the picture will be deleted in a gradient.
If you can still see a hard edge, hit the delete again, or undo and set up a different feather value.

 

[vivendi]

Thanks alot, its working now