The Art of Feathering in Photoshop

Some people are startled on how wonderful images look with blurred edges. They certainly don’t know how easy it is to do it. It is called a feathered edge in Photoshop (PS). You can put in many feathered images together to get a wonderful collage that melts seamlessly together using the Octagonal and Rectangular tool or the Lasso Tools in PS.

Feathering is one of the most commonly used techniques when creating wallpapers. It is set by a radius measurement in pixels which means that it occurs in both directions or on both sides of the selection boundary. Since it’s set by pixels, a feather value will have a very different effect on images of very different resolutions.

The feathering effect to combine two or more images smoothly in PS is easy to be learned. As a start, it’s advisable to use two images. Here we go. First, create a new image of any size you want and paste the image. It should be on layer 1. Now, here comes the feathering effect. Choose the Rectangular Marquee tool and you will see the thing that says Feather. Once you have found it, change the px to between 15-20. Then, select around one-third of the image on the left side and press delete. Now, you can see some of the second image through the first image.

Using the Selection menu, you can set the amount of feathering you wish. Higher numbers, mean wider the spreads of feathering. You can also set the amount of feathering by using the Options bar text entry field for "Feathering" in PS versions 6, 7 and CS. From here, just click the QuickMask button if you wish to test your feather. Now, you can see the feather in action. If you want an even clearer demo, double-click the QuickMask button in the tool bar; and in the QuickMask dialog, set the mask color to white; and the Opacity to 80 to 90%. Keep selecting some parts of the first image and press delete until the two images are combined smoothly. That's it! You now have a feathered image.

Feathering blurs edges by building a transition boundary between the selection and its surrounding pixels. This blurring can cause some loss of detail at the edge of the selection. Always remember that the amount of feathering or 'blur' you assigned will be centered at the active selection. At present, feathering is a software term for the traditional technique known as vignetting: a soft edged border around an image which blends into the background. You can make this any shape you like.

Folks, try the feathering effect in Photoshop now. With it, you’ll be able to experience and learn this interesting and enjoyable technique that is previously enjoyed by web and graphic designers only.