Feathering Photos Together for Digital Scrapbooking

This free digital scrapbooking tutorial was created using Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Corel Paint Shop Pro with Windows, but should be able to be adapted easily to other systems. If you have questions about how to do this, just ask on our message board!

Feathering is a quick and easy way to blend and fade multiple images together. It is perfect for collages or a great digital look for your digital scrapbooking layouts. But feathering can also be used on papers, or with filters, effects, and textures. If you can make a selection, you can feather.

 

Feathering is done with selections. When you feather a selection, the edges of your selection will gradually fade out or become transparent. The amount, or distance, that this will occur is up to you. This gives your selections a soft edge so they will blend into one another or the background easily.

 

Here is an example of feathering.

Feathering a selection can be done at the same time you make your selection, or you can feather your selection after it's been made. (If you're using Paint Shop Pro, and are new to feathering, I suggest you feather your selection after making the selection. I'll show why in the next section.)

 

Three Things to Know Before Feathering

There are three things you need to know before starting.

The first thing you need to know is how much of a feather you want. The higher the number of pixels, the more feathering you get.

The second thing you need to know is that feathering occurs on both sides (inside and outside) of your selection. If you feather a selection by 100 pixels, the fade will start 50 pixels inside your selection and continue for 50 pixels outside your selection.

And the third thing to keep in mind is that you will not see the feathering on the image... you will only see the Selection Marquee, so don't let that confuse you.

 

Feathering After Making a Selection

 

So let's try to feather something. Here's one of the original photographs I started with for my layout.

I want to use just the kitten in my digital scrapbooking layout, and because he's a unique shape, I chose the Lasso/Freehand Selection Tool, but you can feather any selection made from any Selection Tool. With my Lasso, I quickly made a selection around him like this.

One of the first things I want you to see is that this is not a precise selection. Because I intend to feather the selection, I don't have to be that careful about the edges, since there won't really be any edges. As long as I have the parts that I want sharp and clear in the selection area, I'm fine.

Now that I have the kitten selected, I need to feather this selection.

 

In Paint Shop Pro, click Selections> Modify> Feather.

 

In Photoshop/Photoshop Elements, click Select> Feather.

In all programs, you will then be presented with a box asking you to put in a number of pixels you want to feather the selection by.

 

In Paint Shop Pro, you get this.

 

In Photoshop/Photoshop Elements it looks like this.

Paint Shop Pro offers you a preview window, so if you're unsure how much to feather, this feature will really help out. This is why I suggested feathering your selections after you've made them if you're new to this technique. The preview window lets you see just how much your selection will be feathered, and you can change the pixel amount up or down until you get just the right amount of fading you need.

For this kitten image, a 100 pixel feather looks like what I want, so I entered that number and hit “OK.”

 

Feathering in One Step

You can also pick your feathering amount prior to making your selection. Once you get to know what various feather amounts look like, it will save you a step by selecting the feather amount prior to making the selection.

 

In Paint Shop Pro, you simply put the number of pixels you want to feather the selection by in the “Feather” box on the Tool Options Bar. Now when you use the Selection Tool, your Marquee will “jump out” and expand by 100 pixels when you finish the selection.

 

In Photoshop/Photoshop Elements, you simply type the number of pixels you want the selection to be into the “Feather” box on the Tool Bar. Here too, your Selection Marquee will “expand” out 100 pixels when you make the selection.

 

Seeing your Feather

When you've made your selection and feathered it, using either way, you will not see any change whatsoever to the image. You will see that the Selection Marquee has expanded out, but the image in the selection will appear the same. Don't let it fool you.

When you feather a selection, your program is going to “pick up” only a portion of the pixels in your image in the feathered area and “leave behind” others. This is what gives you the feathered fade. But you can't see which pixels it's taking and which it's leaving at this stage, as both are still on the image. To see the feathering, you have to copy your selection and paste it on your layout.

In Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop/Photoshop Elements, click Edit> Copy.

 

Now I opened the paper I wanted to use in my digital scrapbooking layout. This is from the Really Different Paper Super Mini pack. I then pasted my feathered image onto the paper.

In Paint Shop Pro, click Edit> Paste as New Layer. In Photoshop/Photoshop Elements, click Edit> Paste.

 

Now you see the feathering!

 

I then did this to two more pictures of the kitten and placed them along the sides. As each of the photos had a feather of 100, they faded perfectly into one another, no rough edges at all. I added some text and I was done. It took me longer to find the poem and type it up then it did to select the kitten's face from three images and paste them on the paper. How easy is that?

 

Feathering Other Items

Feathering can be used on more than just photographs. Try feathering papers into one another, blocks of color, or textures on a paper. You can even feather Filter Effects. If you can make a selection, you can feather whatever's inside it.

I hope this helps start you out on feathering. If you have any more questions, you can ask a question on our message board.

Digital Scrapbook Layout by Durin Eberhart
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Free digital scrapbooking tutorial written by Lori Cook.

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