[Blending one image into another]

Oh wow, I guess I was thinking too hard about it. I was trying to do an alpha gradient on both sides and it always made the middle somewhat transparent.

Anyway, thanks guys.

[Blending one image into another]

Okay, so I'm making an image for a steam group, and I've got two images:

I want to put them side by side like this to make one image:

Now, what I want to do is make the last image so that the two sides merge into each other so it's not so sudden of a jump. Also, I don't want to blur it. Does anyone have a good system for doing this? Any help would be appreciated.

[how can i achieve this faded effect?]

Perhaps you can use a small blur or just lower the opacity the layer is on. :wink:

No, that's not the beat-up effect he is looking for..

The best I have come up with in replicating this effect is by taking a stock photo, making it black and white, selecting part of it with the magic wand tool and then pressing delete on the layer you want.

I found a Photoshop tutorial that shows the main idea, and it can all be replicated in Paint.NET: http://www.biorust.com/tutorials/detail/181/en/

[Changing Transparent Background?]

Is there a way to change what the transparent background is? Like, instead of the grey and white squares, could I just make it white? I would want to do this to test what my pic would look like on a white background.