Inverse feathering question

Let me try and explain......

I have a picture of a face
I have used elliptical marquee tool to encircle the face I then use select inverse (to make the outside of the circle all white,using paintbrush tool)
Question.....

How do I feather/fade the boundary of the elliptical shape. (where the white background joins the circle)

thanks

"Scudo" wrote in message news:cIgif.92069

How do I feather/fade the boundary of the elliptical shape. (where the white
background joins the circle)

When you inverse - go to 'select' feather and enter a number, then delete, unless I'm missing something here?

I have used elliptical marquee tool to encircle the face

I then use select inverse (to make the outside of the circle all white,using paintbrush tool)

How do I feather/fade the boundary of the elliptical shape. (where the white background joins the circle)

What I'd do is make the selection and then do Select - Feather to blur the edges, and *then* invert (if you invert first you'll find the edges of the image also get feathered), and then instead of "using paintbrush tool" I'd do Edit - Fill with white.

Bill Hilton wrote:

I have used elliptical marquee tool to encircle the face

I then use select inverse (to make the outside of the circle all white,using paintbrush tool)

How do I feather/fade the boundary of the elliptical shape. (where the white background joins the circle)

What I'd do is make the selection and then do Select - Feather to blur the edges, and *then* invert (if you invert first you'll find the edges of the image also get feathered), and then instead of "using paintbrush tool" I'd do Edit - Fill with white.

Doesn't feathering blur both sides of a selection's edge? If it does, it will not make any difference whether feathering is applied before or after inverting the selection. But I could be wrong.

What I'd do is make the selection and then do Select - Feather to blur the edges, and *then* invert (if you invert first you'll find the edges of the image also get feathered)

Bothsi writes ...

Doesn't feathering blur both sides of a selection's edge?

Yes.

If it does, it will not make any difference whether feathering is applied before or after inverting the selection. But I could be wrong.

You are wrong, as you can easily see by simply trying it. If you draw the circle and feather you are feathering both sides of the circle (or ellipse) but not the boundary of the image. If you invert first you are feathering both sides of the circle and also feathering the edges of the selection at the boundary of the image rectangle. Try it and see ...

Bill

In article <cIgif.92069$>,
"Scudo" wrote:

I have a picture of a face
I have used elliptical marquee tool to encircle the face I then use select inverse (to make the outside of the circle all white,using paintbrush tool)

You're doing it the hard way. Do not use the Paint Brush tool to fill in a selection with white.

Many newcomers to Photoshop really struggle with the simplest of all operations: trying to figure out how to fill a selected area with some color. Some newbies mistakenly think that the Paint Bucket tool is designed for that; other newbies paint and paint to do it.

In Photoshop, you fill a selection with the foreground color by holding down the Alt key (Mac: OPTION key) on your keyboard and pressing Backspace or Delete.

Question.....

How do I feather/fade the boundary of the elliptical shape. (where the white background joins the circle)

Make your oval selection.

Feather the selection using the Select->feather command.

Then select the inverse.

--
Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html

Bill Hilton wrote:

What I'd do is make the selection and then do Select - Feather to blur the edges, and *then* invert (if you invert first you'll find the edges of the image also get feathered)

Bothsi writes ...

Doesn't feathering blur both sides of a selection's edge?

Yes.

If it does, it will not make any difference whether feathering is applied before or after inverting the selection. But I could be wrong.

You are wrong, as you can easily see by simply trying it. If you draw the circle and feather you are feathering both sides of the circle (or ellipse) but not the boundary of the image. If you invert first you are feathering both sides of the circle and also feathering the edges of the selection at the boundary of the image rectangle. Try it and see ...

Oops, I stand corrected. I was thinking only about the circle and not the boundary. Hate those who are always right. <g>

Bothsi writes

Oops, I stand corrected. I was thinking only about the circle and not the boundary

Actually you were right when you posted earlier "it will not make any difference whether feathering is applied before or after inverting the selection" and I was wrong when I said the outside boundary would feather as well, causing problems. I tested it after writing the previous post and saw I was wrong ... so (words my wife loves to hear above all others :) "you were right, I was wrong".

I can remember feathering the boundary before but I think I had to draw the selection box inside the image to do it, that is, doing a 'select - all' won't allow you to apply the feathering.

Hate those who are always right

Yeah well, I guess I'm definitely not in that group ...

Bill

Bill Hilton wrote:

Bothsi writes

Oops, I stand corrected. I was thinking only about the circle and not the boundary

Actually you were right when you posted earlier "it will not make any difference whether feathering is applied before or after inverting the selection" and I was wrong when I said the outside boundary would feather as well, causing problems. I tested it after writing the previous post and saw I was wrong ... so (words my wife loves to hear above all others :) "you were right, I was wrong".
I can remember feathering the boundary before but I think I had to draw the selection box inside the image to do it, that is, doing a 'select - all' won't allow you to apply the feathering.

Hate those who are always right

Yeah well, I guess I'm definitely not in that group ...

Whew, got me worried for a while. I only made one mistake in my life: there was once that I thought I was wrong, but it turned out I was right. This will be the second time. Aging must be catching up.

This thread should go into the NG Hall of Fame: two posters admitting that they are wrong!

BTW Bill, you meant you don't test your posts first before publishing? Shame on you! <g>