I’m not quite sure I understand what you want to accomplish, but I’ll provide a couple of things that might help. Or not.
First, "fade" sounds a lot like "feathering" in Elements – softening the edges. We have to address the "selection" part, I guess, before going any farther.
Do you want this effect on an entire image or just a portion of an image? If the whole thing (your reference to "hand draw a rectangle" around the whole picture is what I’m going by), have the image open on your screen and then go to the main menu bar, Select>All. That will give you the line of "marching ants" around your entire image. From there, go again to Select>Feather. You’ll get a screen in which you can set the number of pixels you want effected.
An option to "Select>All" is simply to use the Rectangular marquee tool and start in one corner of the picture and draw it down to the opposite corner, thereby selecting the whole thing. Or you can use a keyboard shortcut – Mac it would be Command A; Win is, I think, Control A.
Is this what you want to know? If not, repost and try to give a bit more detailed example, please.
Barb, you found us ..good !
Ok, look on your toolbar in the upper left corner. You’ll see a tool called ‘ rectangular marquee’ tool. Click on that and then you’ll see an option just above the screen on it’s own little toolbar called ‘ feather ‘…set that number( pixels ) between 25 and 50. Now, make a selection around the inner edge of your image…for windows>right click> select inverse> then on your keyboard>delete. Now, there are a couple of different options you can use to start with…when you first bring an image into Elements you’ll see it is called a ‘background layer’ ( to show layers palette>go to toolbar>window>check ‘layers’) What i stated will work in ‘background’ layer mode but will be more opaque. For a real good fade>double click on the ‘background’ layer ( your image ) in the layers palette…a pop up screen will ask to rename..blah blah click OK’. Now you have a layer. Try the same steps again and see what you get. I’m not sure what the resolution of your image is but the feather pixel number that you put in will make all the difference in the effect you wish to achieve….play with different settings until you find a good feather number. When you print you will automatically get a fade to white background. Please come back if you need more help with this. By the way, this is just one way of doing it 😉
Hi Beth, you weren’t up there when i first started typing 🙂
Oh btw, I couldn’t get that file to show the ‘image’ of the antique paper in the web gallery. The name is there but no preview image. hmmm, will get back to it another time
This is how I do it. Maybe not as sophisticated as the previous answers, but it works for me. I pick the right colour, select a soft brush, place it in a corner, press shift and click in the next corner, next corner and all the way around the image.
Leen
I am new to photoshop. I’m trying to do a collage where one picture fades some and you can fput another pic there. How would I do this
Leen, that is a fantastic tip – fast and effective. Best use I’ve seen yet of the ability to ‘fire’ brushes! Thanks for sharing.
Chuck
Chuck, sometimes I really am fantastic, my wife tells me sometimes.
But since I discovered PSE I hear this compliment less and less.
Very kind of you; you are bringing back my fading self confidence.
You folks are so kind to me when I need it…… ;-)))
Leen
Yet another method,
From the menu bar:
Select -> All
Select -> Modify -> Border
(Set to your desired border thickness)
Select -> Inverse
In the "well" of the toolbar click on "Effects" tab, then in the little scroll menu in the Effects window, choose Frames. There should be one called "Vignette..". Drag it to your image and drop.
If it isn’t what you need, then Edit -> Undo and you’re back to square one.
(Now I’m just hoping that "Frames" comes with PE2 and isn’t something I downloaded from somewhere.)
Kyle
Kyle, as the Prego Spaghetti Sauce people say…."It’s In There!"
Chuck
Wow! You guys are GREAT! I tried all the suggestions just to get familiar with them. I can tell I’m going to really LOVE this program! I’m actually evaluating it to see if I want to invest in the full-blown version. So far, so good! THANKS! 😀
Angela posted:
"I am new to photoshop. I’m trying to do a collage where one picture fades some and you can fput another pic there. How would I do this"
You should put this on a new thread, Angela. There are probably other people that would find this a good question, and I also think it’s gotten a bit buried here.
Hi Barbara, I agree with Jodi. I’m a full time professional high street portrait photographer and I don’t need anything more than Elements.
My colleagues smile, but to me it is kind of sport not to buy the full version. And, remember, less is often more.
Leen
Leen,
You mentioned earlier the "shift"-key.
Which one is it because I can’t find it.
I tried all kinds of keys and in doing so discovered a large number of new commands but am still unable to draw a straight line between two points because of lack of the shift key.
Robert
Robert,
The "shift" key is the one you use to go between upper and lower case letters.
Terry