how can I round the corners of a pic?

[Elaine]

Feeling a bit thick here...and using PSE 5. I'm simply trying to round the corners off a shot I'm putting on a wallet/business card. I'd like the corners to just disappear into the white background. I've only been able to come up with a way that feathers the selection, which doesn't make the corners really go away. Can someone point me in the right direction, please?

[BradfordBenn]

Hope this helps, I am not sure if it works in PSE the same as PS CS, and it might even be the way you are doing it

Select the part you want to keep (I have only done this with marquees that were on the image, but maybe you could make a border and then crop off the area when done)
Feather the selection
Invert the selection
Fill the new selection with the foreground color you want (probably white) using the Edit>Fill Command


Make sense?

[Elaine]

Hope this helps, I am not sure if it works in PSE the same as PS CS, and it might even be the way you are doing it

Select the part you want to keep (I have only done this with marquees that were on the image, but maybe you could make a border and then crop off the area when done)
Feather the selection
Invert the selection
Fill the new selection with the foreground color you want (probably white) using the Edit>Fill Command
Make sense?

Yes, that's what I've been doing, but because of the feathering, it doesn't totally cover the edges, just makes them lighter and faded. I've been feathering by 10 or 20 in order to make the corners round off, but this also seems to cause the problem of the fade away corners, rather than the clean, rounded corners I was going for. I'm thinking of trying to insert a pic into a rounded rectangle shape, but it just seems there's got to be a non-complicated way to do this. I mean, photoshop can do SO many things, this is just a simple little thing that I can't get my brain around. :rolleyes :D Thanks for the input, though!

[OffTopic]

Hi Elaine, give this a try:

Select the rounded rectangle tool (shortcut "U"), make sure that Paths is selected, adjust the radius and draw your rectangle. Then go to Layer>Vector Mask>Current Path. That will give you the rounded corners. You can then create a new layer underneath to serve as a background if you wish.

Um, just noticed that you are using PSE5, and what I've given is for PS. Can you make this work in PSE? I'm not sure what tools are available in PSE.


Lori

[Sam]

Elaine,

I tried for 40 minutes with out any luck. I give up, but I'll be watching in case someone figures it out.

Sam

[Elaine]

Thanks for the tips, Lori! I'll see what I can do with PSE. :thumb

Sam...I appreciate that you tried for so long!

[OffTopic]

Just realized that I have a copy of PSE3 that came preloaded on my computer. Assuming that the same tools are in PSE5, the cookie cutter tool will work to round your corners; you'll have to load the rounded rectangle from Shapes.

That's actually a neat little tool!


Lori

[Eric&Susan]

This might help:

Use the cookie cutter tool to get your rounded edge pic.

This will give you a rounded pic inside of a square back ground.

Select the four corners using the magic wand tool.

Then under Edit--Stroke (outline) Selection use that with different setting to see if you can get what you want.

Eric

[Richard]

Elaine,

Here's something you might try...it won't exactly give rounded corners, but it will force them to white and give you a gradual transition into the image.

1. Create a new layer above your image.
2. Choose the gradient tool
3. In the tool's drop-down box, select the foreground to transparent gradient. In CS3, this is the second box.
4. Set the foreground color to white.
5. Now start at a corner and drag the gradient cursor inward towards the center of the pic a bit.
6. You should see the corner turn white and gradually start to reveal the image.
7. Do the same thing for the other corners. This can all be done on the same layer.
8. I don't know whether PSE5 has masks, but if so, add a mask to the layer and select the mask. Then use the ellipse tool to create an oval that covers all the area that you want to show completely. Fill the ellipse with black.
8. Flatten, and you're done.

The further in from the corner you start the gradient, the larger the white area. You can also use the gradient editor to modify the rate of change. Of course, you can always paint or erase directly on the top layer (or its mask) if you want to fine tune the result. This same technique is useful in creating vignettes, but you would need to use a black foreground.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

[Elaine]

Thanks for all the tips, folks! I finally had time to try this again last night and was successful with the cookie cutter tool. I found a shape that did the trick so I trimmed the photo and put it on a new white layer and it worked. Yay! Thanks again! :thumb

[Eric&Susan]

Glad you got what you needed

Eric