Soften the edges of your photos
Published: December 20, 2005
One common graphics-editing technique on the Web today is to have the edges of a digital photo appear soft with feathered edges so that the image blends in with the background.
This is a quick and easy editing technique that can help you enhance your digital photos in just a few minutes using Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006.
Note
Before you edit your digital photos, it's a good idea to make a copy of the original image and make your edits to that copy. This way you'll still have the original photo.
To soften the edges of a photo
1. | In Digital Image Suite 2006 Editor, open the digital photo that you want to edit. |
2. | Click the Marquee tool. 
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3. | With the Marquee tool selected, click in the upper left hand corner of the photo and drag to the lower right hand corner to select the entire photo. 
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4. | Click the Selection button. In the resulting Marquee Tool dialog box, click Feather. 
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5. | In the Feather Selection dialog box, enter a value between 0 and 250 for the amount that you want to soften the edge, and then click OK. 
A higher number results in a softer edge and vice versa. |
6. | In the Marquee Tool dialog box, click Invert, and then press Delete. 
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7. | If you want to soften the edges more, press Delete again. |
8. | To cancel the selection, press ESC. Here's an example of the edited photo with softened edges in Digital Image Suite 2006. 
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9. | On the File menu, click Save to save the changes you made. |
Changing the background color
By default, the edges of your photo are white. However, you can easily change the color of the edges of the photos to create a more dramatic look if you want.
To change the background color
1. | To create a new shape, on the Common Tasks menu, click the Add Something arrow, click Shape, and then select the Square. 
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2. | Drag the edges of the square so that it covers the entire image, and then fill it with a color by clicking the Fill Color button, and choosing a color, such as black in this example. 
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3. | With the square selected, on the Format menu, point to Move Forward or Backward, and then click Send to Back. The background will then be moved to the bottom of the stack. Here's an example of an edited digital photo in Digital Image Suite 2006 that has a feathered edge with a black background. 
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4. | On the File menu, click Save to save the changes you made. |
