Feather not working?

JW
Posted By
John_Worcester
May 9, 2004
Views
4553
Replies
10
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Closed
I want to feather an image on one layer into an image on another layer. I selected the image to be feathered while its layer was active (300dpi image),chose Select/Feather,then any number available,click OK. The selection marquee shrinks the appropriate number of pixels, but the image remains unchanged. What am I missing here?
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feather work

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RW
Rene_Walling
May 9, 2004
You are feathering the selection, not the image (look in Quickmasks to see the feathered selection).

To feather the actual image, I recommend using layer masks.
R
Ragnar
May 9, 2004
I believe your next step would be to Select – New Layer – Via copy…. Then just look at your new layer by itself…

The original layer will always stay the same, you need to create and look at the new image you are creating….

🙂

wrote in message
I want to feather an image on one layer into an image on another layer. I
selected the image to be feathered while its layer was active (300dpi image),chose Select/Feather,then any number available,click OK. The selection marquee shrinks the appropriate number of pixels, but the image remains unchanged. What am I missing here?
JW
John_Worcester
May 10, 2004
I was trying to feather the selection. I could’nt seem to get it to work in my project so I did a test as follows:
1)In new file, I created a blue circle, then rasterized it.
2) Created a new layer with a smaller pink circle on top of the blue one. Rasterized pink circle.
3)With pink circle layer active, I selected the pink circle.
4) Went to Select/feather. In feather, selected a feather pixel size and clicked OK.
5) Marching ants circle got smaller by specified amount of pixels, but nothing happened to the pink circle. In other words, it acted like the Select/contract command.
PC
Pierre_Courtejoie
May 10, 2004
To "feather" a bitmap shape, use Filters>blur>gaussian blur.
JM
John Mensinger
May 10, 2004
John, following your step 4, press Delete to see the effects of your feathered selection.
JR
John_R_Nielsen
May 10, 2004
With the selection feathered, add a layer mask from the Layer menu. This will give you a mask that allows the selection to show through. Note that since the feather will go both ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ the selection, you will still se the hard edge of the object. To get around this, you can contract the selection before feathering, or use Levels on the mask, to make the feathering only go ‘inside’.
MP
M_Penner
May 10, 2004
Hi John,

After doing the feather, you have created a feathered selection. Now in order to get that feathered selection of the pink circle "feathered" into the blue circle, you need to assign your feathered selection as a layer mask.

After your step #4 above, if you look to your bottom right of your screen, you should see the "Layers" tab of the "Layers…Channels…Paths" palette. There you will see your current pink circle layer (most likely named ‘Shape 2’) set as the active layer. If you look directly down from there, at the very bottom of that "Layer" palette, you’ll see a series of 6 little icons going from left to right.

The second icon from the left looks like a white circle inside of a dark square. That’s the "Add layer mask" icon. So, while you have your feathered selection still active in your pink circle layer (which should be the active layer), just click on that "Add layer mask" icon. You will instantly see your pink circle "feathered" into your blue circle.

You can then continue working in your pink circle layer, or do a Layer->Flatten command via the main menu (or via the little right arrow icon that’s just to the right of the Layer…Channels…Paths palette tabs). If you flatten, you have a single background layer you can use as your new starting point.

Hopefully that helped!

Cheers,

Mike
JW
John_Worcester
May 11, 2004
OK, Thanks for all the help. I got a feather to happen. But, there is still a very defined sharp edge around the perimeter of the pink circle. What I want is a "fade to nothing" like I might get with a gradient tool. I know I could probably do this with the gradient tool, except the real world place where I want to do it is not a circle, but an asymmetrical shape. I need to blend it into the next layer down with no discernible blend line. Any help would be appreciated.
MP
M_Penner
May 12, 2004
You may have missed the post before mine, by John R Nielsen, where he gives you some tips on that particular issue.

I would add to his comments that substantially boosting the feather value can also eliminate the hard edge, to help produce a smooth transition. Whether or not that’s feasible probably depends on what you’re doing.

Give it a go, and see what happens.

Cheers,

Mike
DM
dave_milbut
May 12, 2004
here’s what i do start to finish. i know i’m repeating but hey, it’s a free forum! 🙂

make your selection
copy to a new layer
move into place
crtl-click the layer to select all pixels
click the Add Layer Mask icon in the layers palette (bottom)

making sure the mask is selected:
use filter> gaussian blur to feather to taste.
use image> adjustments> levels to tighten or loosen the feathering.

that’s it.

i’ve even actionized it. go to:
<http://aikodude.tripod.com/RS.html>

scroll down and get: MaskNAdjusts.atn (make sure the browser has the name right when saving. some browsers want to strip off the .atn at the end!)

load that into the actions palette

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