A Photoshop Demo

Step 1

First, open an image in Photoshop. If you will be using this image on the web, as we will in this demonstration, make sure the image size is set to 72 dpi. Do this by going to the menu, and change the Resolution accordingly. Click "OK"

If changing the Resolution has made your image difficult to see, go to the View menu and choose either Fit in Window or Print Size.

For this demonstration we'll choose the oval marquee tool. If it isn't visible, click and hold down the mouse button on the first box on the left in the Photoshop toolbox to view choices (see illustration).

Step 2

Using the marquee tool, click, hold down the buttton, and drag the mouse across an area of the image you'd like to select.

If you don't get what you want the first time, hold down the key, and type the letter D to deselect your selection. Click, hold, and drag the mouse across the image again. Keep doing this until you get what you like.

Note: Windows Users, use the Control [ctrl] key. Mac users, use the Command key for keyboard shortcuts.

Step 3

Go to the Select menu, and select Feather...

The Feather dialog box will open.

Step 4

Enter a value of "10" in the Feather dialog box.

Click "OK"

Later, you can try this exercise again, and experiment with different feather values. The value refers to the radius of pixels that are feathered. If you tried feathering a higher resolution image, such as a 300 dpi image, the feather value would need to be much higher than 10 to see a visible result.

Copy your selection. Do this by going to the menu and choosing , or hold down the key and type the letter C.

Now let's go on to the next page....