blending images with transparency

[amylawson]

hi,

can anyone please tell me how to acheive a transparent area in a photo as done in this link.any help will be appreciated

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/914/ ... wer4.0.jpg

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/914/ ... wer4.0.jpg

thanks

amy

[Crazy Man Dan]

What they probably did there was overlay a white fill on a semi-transparent layer to fade out the image of the flowers partly.

Basically, by double-clicking on the layer name in the Layers palette, you can open up the Layer Properties window. In that window, there's a slider labeled Opacity - moving that slider to the left will start to make the layer transparent.

Since the faded out area in that image is only the left-most flowers, not the whole layer, fading out the flowers layer won't get you the effect you want.* But, since the background is white in that example, you could make a new layer, make a white rectangle on it that covers over part of the bouquet, then lower the opacity of the layer with the white rectangle on it. This would let the flowers show partly through, giving it a faded look as in your example.

A-something like this:

If you'd like to see the layered file to get a more visual idea of the layer organization, you can download the PDN through this link: http://cmdsketchpad.com/img/floralfade.pdn

Of course, the subject of the image may change, but the basic principle will stay the same for achieving an effect like this in whatever it is you plan on doing.

Does that answer your question?

* By using BoltBait's Transparency Adjustment plugin, you could actually fade out just the requisite section of the flowers layer. This method could work better if the background isn't a solid color and you're placing an image with a transparent background over the pattern, but for this example, the process described above was just a whole lot more straightforward.

Image credit: http://www.flowerbud.com/brights-bouquet . Thanks Google!