I want to take this picture and turn it into an oval bust type picture that has the pretty fading out to white. Where do I start to do that?

Thanks,
Sylvia

Hi, Sylvia.

There's an easy way to do it in Photoshop. Create a new layer above your photo and fill it with the color of your choice (I used red for demonstration purposes). Add a layer mask to the color layer. Using the circular marquee tool make an oval selection to fit the way you want it. If you want it to fade in from the edges, go to the Selection menu and choose feather and enter the number of pixels (I used 10 for this image). With the selection still active, go to the layer mask and fill the selection with black.

That's all there is to it.

Your solution is no further than the Tutorial section in Retouch Pro. To to Tutorials>Manipulation Tutorials>Easy Vignetting.

k

Okay. I'm a little embarrassed to let you all know how challenged I am but for the first step to create a new layer above the picture, do I go to Layer and then to New, then to Layer? or Layer from background? or Layer via Copy? Then after I create the layer, how do I get to the color picker from there? Also, do I keep the Layer highlighted during this process or the background?

Okay. I've gotten a little further along. I created a layer and filled it with white. I put the opacity at 25% so I could see the image through the layer. I drew an oval shape on that layer. I went to choose Select> then Inverse but the Inverse is grayed out.............. not an option so I'm stuck again.

So far, nobody has done an oval selection, they're all eliptical. An oval is two straight sides with semi-circular ends.

Just to be nit picking.

Dear AA,

It can be confusing, try to follow this:

1. Duplicate your background image. Click and drag the background image down to the icon next to the trash can in the Layers Palette
2. Keep that duplicated image highlighted
3. Go to Layer>New> Layer and clickOK
4. You will see a blank layer above your image
5. With the blank layer highlighted or selected go to Edit>Fill. You will see
a pop up window and under Contents Use white to fill. Click OK
6. In the white layer, reduce opacity of the fill to 25%
7. Select the eliptical Marquee and draw an eliptical selection around your image, ( this is not a true oval as Gary reminds us :grin: )
8. Now go to Select>Inverse or Ctrl+Shift+I
9. Press the letter Q to enter into Quick Mask Mode
10. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and adjust the blur feather to your taste
11.Exit Quick Mask by pressing the letter Q again
12. Do Shift+Ctrl+I again or Select>Inverse
13. Re-Set the white layers opacity back to 100%, It will be all white, don't
worry.
14. Now go to Edit>Cut or Ctrl+X and the image will appear.

There are easier ways to be sure, but I've always liked this method.

k

Okay, since we're nit picking...

An oval does NOT have two flat sides with rounded ends. An oval IS an elliptical shape.

Check it out...
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=oval

I went to choose Select> then Inverse but the Inverse is grayed out.............. not an option so I'm stuck again. I'm beginning to wonder if my computer is working differently from everyone's else's. When I get to the point where I'm to Inverse the selection, I can't access the Inverse command. It's grayed out and inactive.

Another way that you can get the effect that you want if you are using Photoshop is use the vignette action. You duplicate your background layer, then drag the round marquee selection tool over the copy until you like the selection. Next goe to actions (Window>actions) and choose vignette, and press the play icon. It will automatically put a vignette around your figure.

Cathy :classic:

Just so you all can see what I'm talking about I'm attaching a screen capture of my screen.

Sylvia,

In an earlier post you said you drew an oval shape on the white layer. Were you using the marquee tool? It's the one in the top left corner of the tool bar. It defaults to a square by default, but if you click and hold on it you get a flyout and can select the circular marque tool.

Once the tool is active, click and drag on the canvas to create a selection.

A selection is indicated by the "marching ants" an animated dashed line that's either rectangular or circular that surrounds your selection. Once you've got that, then you can go to the SELECTION menu and what you need shouldn't be grayed out. Select INVERT and you should see the marching ants surround everything that you didn't have selected.

Sylvia,

I just saw your screen grab. Yep, you were using the shape tool. You really want the selection tool.

Or, you can hold down the Control key and click on the layer icon of the oval shape layer you've already made to get the selection at this point.

Once you have the selection, just hide the oval shape layer and proceed to the selection menu. Don't forget to change back to the white layer. You can select the white layer either before or after you make the selection. It doesn't matter.

Racc Iria, suggest you find a new dictionary. An Elipse is not the same as an oval if it were, why have two names. In fact an Oval is as I described it.

Gary, I'm not going to argue with you. We're both right. An oval is just a common term for an ellipse AND the "pill" shape you're talking about. A real world example... where are the straight walls in the Oval Office?

Racc Iria, suggest you find a new dictionary.

Well, I took your advice.
Here's the definition from Webster's New College Dictionary...

Thanks so much to everyone! Mission accomplished!

You're quite welcome.

Glad we could help.

Racc Iria, your definitions are based on a general usage dictionary. In a dictionary of geometrical forms, I'm sure you'd find the definition of an Elipse to be different to that of an Oval.

But I must concede that in common usage, many people will use elipse and oval interchangeably.

As I said in my 1st post, I was being nit picking, ie. my tongue was firmly in my cheek.