Fade a color

[bay89]

Hey, I have a picture of a red flower and I made the background black and white but the flower looks like it was copy and pasted onto the background, I was wondering if there is a way that I can make the red flower look a little more faded, so that it dont look like it was copy and pasted. 

[Cc4FuzzyHuggles]

Your flower will need to be on its own layer if it isn't already. (how to use layers?)

 

With the flower on it's own layer, try these plugins:

 

Feather Plugin
 
AA's Assistant

How To Install Plugins

 

Most people favor AA's Assistant, but I personally like to first run the feather plugin and then I use AA's Assistant second.

 

You can also try using only Feather and then duplicate the layer multiple times to make the edge more solid but smooth (and then merge the duplicates back down into each other).

 

Or you can run AA's Assistant multiple times.

Edited November 10, 2015 by Cc4FuzzyHuggles

[MJW]

Cc4FuzzyHuggles is assuming by "make the red flower look a little more faded" you mean soften the edges, which is a reasonable assumption given you want to make it look less cut-and-pasted. If you mean something else, please explain more fully what you mean. Why do people requesting advice seem to feel they get extra credit for brevity?

[Cc4FuzzyHuggles]

MJW is right, I assumed you wanted smoothed edges. If you want actual faded edges, then the Alpha Blur plugin might be what you want, or you might even like the Gradient Blending tutorial. The feather plugin is good for both making smoother edges but also faded edges.

Edited November 10, 2015 by Cc4FuzzyHuggles

[MJW]

Cc4FuzzyHuggles, until I read your response, I thought bay89 wanted the color to be less saturated, and was going to suggest Hue/Saturation+. Your interpretation makes more sense, though. I sure wish people would take the time to add more detail when asking questions like that. Over-explaining would certainly be preferable to under-explaining.

[Cc4FuzzyHuggles]

Oh, you're right! Faded can mean faded as in faded in color, my brain was in a totally different place, haha. I'm so used to cutting out objects, that fading = fade the edges, blend the edges, soften edge, etc.