PDA

View Full Version : How to action a feathered edge ?


tubs
20th of June 2005 (Mon), 23:36
Thanks to everybody who has offered suggestions on this issue. Unfortunately I still haven't come up with a solution which will work in an action. I've hiked through literally dozens of tutorials on the web, but haven't found what I want, so I'm asking here again. I'm using Photoshop CS.

Here's what I need: I have several dozen images from a shoot and the client wants a feathered edge on all of them. The images generally can't be cropped down much, because I composed them how I wanted when I shot them. To look sensible, the feather needs to run from 100% at the inside of the border region to 0% at the outside.

The problem: It is impossible to apply a feather to a selection invoked using 'select all'. This type of selection has only one feathering option called 'border', which works but looks silly at the corners where the feathering applies twice because of the effect of both edges.

How I get around it: To do a nice feathered edge manually, I use the rectangular marquis, with the feather set to the appropriate amount. I use this to select the entire image. I then invert the selection. The trick now is to hit delete 5 times, resulting in a nice even soft edge all around.

So what's the problem? I can't get the rectangular marquis to work in an action, because all images are different shapes and sizes. The action always uses the exact marquis that was used for the first image.

Can anybody tell me a way to make the rectangular marquis relative, so it always selects the whole image ? Or does anybody know a way to nudge in the selection from a 'select all' - maybe that will allow it to be feathered.

Cheers all.

ProAc_Fan
20th of June 2005 (Mon), 23:52
Hmm just wondering if you could just create an adjustment layer for this edge feathering and then manually apply that layer to any image you'd like. You could just drop and drag this layer onto any open image you like.

Mike

prime80
21st of June 2005 (Tue), 00:06
If you wrote a javascript action, you should be able to query the image size in the script. I'm pretty java illiterate, but I'm sure someone here could help.

PacAce
21st of June 2005 (Tue), 05:47
Give this a try:

1. Select > All
2. Select > Modify > Border and specify how far in you want the selection to go.
3. Select > Feather and specify a number that will round out the corners enough for you.
4. Delete
5. Select > Deselect.

PacAce
21st of June 2005 (Tue), 06:06
Or...
1. Select > All
2. Select > Modify > Border, specify 1 pixel
3. Select > Inverse
4. Select > Modify > Contract, specify size of border
5. Select > Inverse
6. Select > Feather, specify half of border size or to suit your taste
7. Delete

tubs
26th of June 2005 (Sun), 22:15
Bingo! Thanks Leo. Your second suggestion works well. Job done. Everyone's happy.

For the sake of completion I've since discovered another way. After 'Select All' you can run 'Free Transform' and set the selection to a percentage of each axis. I run it to 95%. Then I 'Feather' by 5-10 pixels, 'Select Inverse' then 'Delete' 5 times.

I love this forum. I really do.

Tubs.

PacAce
27th of June 2005 (Mon), 05:45
Bingo! Thanks Leo. Your second suggestion works well. Job done. Everyone's happy.

For the sake of completion I've since discovered another way. After 'Select All' you can run 'Free Transform' and set the selection to a percentage of each axis. I run it to 95%. Then I 'Feather' by 5-10 pixels, 'Select Inverse' then 'Delete' 5 times.

I love this forum. I really do.

Tubs.
:) Glad you finally got it to work to your satisfaction. And thanks for that tip re using the Free Transform (and using relative percentages instead of absolute pixels). That's handy to know, too. :)