GRRRRR

[April]

Okay...I've done this before a few times, but for some reason, it just doesn't want to work this time. I'm trying to burn the edges of a photo, and the method I'm using is from an article on Ron Bigelow's site (Burn Edges)

I've done it with a few pictures without a problem, but now, whenever I get to the step where I inverse, instead of inversing the selection which should turn the inside of the selection red, it creates another selection all around the edge of the photo, like a dotted line, not changing anything to red. So now there is my original selection, and another one all around the edges. When I try to do a gaussian blur, it just blurs everything around the middle selection completely, and leaves hard lines around the edges of the middle selection. Changing the radius only makes the outside of the selection more or less blurry. I know this probably sounds completely confusing, but if anyone has any clue what I'm talking about, maybe you could offer a suggestion as to what's going wrong with my inversing? I've followed the steps exactly, but something's not right...ugh....thanks for reading all this...

[jfrancho]

You're probably not in quick mask mode? hit Q to toggle from standard to quick mask.

[April]

You actually can't inverse unless you're in standard mode.

[jfrancho]

Yes, then you need to go back to QM mode and run the Gaussian blur.

[April]

Exactly...the problem is, it's not inversing correctly...Following the steps exactly, tried it with different pics, same problem, I don't know why it won't work when I just did it earlier. Let's hope this whole computer doesn't go sailing out the window into the snow...

[jfrancho]

I just did it, following the instructions, and it works fine. Read it carefully, and go through again.

[April]

Ok!! I got it! For some reason, even though it says to move to standard mode THEN inverse, the only way it will work is if I inverse FIRST and THEN move into quick mask mode...strange...thanks for the advice, guess it just takes a bit of playing around.

[jfrancho]

You got it. In standard mode, you're running the blur on the selection, or the part of the image contained by the marching ants. In QM mode, you're running the blur on the mask itself, making a smooth transition. This confuses me as well, which is why I prefer to save the mask as a selection, and do things like Gaussian blur in the alpha channel itself. Then when I want to use the mask, I simple Ctrl-click the alpha channel, switch the the layers panel, choose what layer I want to mask, and hit the Add Layer Mask button. You can also use the menu: Layer > Layer mask > choose the appropriate item from there.

Glad you worked it out.

[April]

Thanks again!