CatherineL

Thank you so much, Damien!

So which way should I be drawing the line?

Forget that one. Here is the original, the blur added, then applying the gradient.

The first one is the original. The second one is adding the blur, but before the gradient.

Actually, when I applied the gradient, it seem to take the blur away. After comparing them side by side.

Dear God, THAT was my problem this whole time?!?! Taking the Layers and Masks Class asap. How does it look?

I know. That will be my next class for sure. So the blur copy was actually a little cloning I had to do. (I'm guessing I didn't do as well as I thought with the original cloning layer.) So I need to do the gradient on the "a little cloning" mask, right? Or do i do it on the "BLUR copy" mask? And which way do I draw the line for the gradient? When I go from bottom to top, I get this: Do I have to mask again after applying the gradient? I didn't see that in the Blurring a background tutorial.

This is what happened when I drew the line. Sorry, I am just lost here...

I was clicking on the gradient fill, not the tool. And I'm selecting the gradient tool on the blur layer, correct? Or do i need to make another layer for it? This is what happens when I draw a line:

Are gradients discussed in the layers class?

Nope.

Thanks so much. Now I'm at the gradient layer. Totally lost here. I watched the video with the gray background and the baby with the blue balloon, but I'm not sure what exactly I'm supposed to do with it at this point. The "draw with a gradient from a bottom up" part especially.

Thank you Damien! I'm up to the part where I select inverse, but I can't figure out how the mask changes to white?? Mine is staying black.

I got an email from the mom about the picture for her son's yearbook photo. They said to ask the photographer to blur the background so it doesn't look like it's an outdoor photo. I tried a gaussian blur, but I'm getting a weird blue line above his shoulder. Should I be using a different blur tool? Thank you for any help. I'll post a before and after.

So, of course, they would like this in an 8x10. Are there any tutorials on how to extend the top and bottom of a picture? Thank you for any help! My only other suggestion to them was to crop to 12x18. That would be the next closest size to an 8x10 without cutting off the sides, correct?

Thank you! My first time doing anything as complicated as this. I'm off to bed. Again, thanks so much for your help!

How's this?

You are too kind! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Oh, wow. That's amazing, thank you! Do you have a tutorial for that? Is it just putting the background picture over the family and masking?

Yes, much better. Should I post the full size?

I went into the HSL/Grayscale tab and played with the magenta and purple sliders under the saturation tab. Does it look any better?

Yes, I did try CA removal in the second edit. Here is the non cropped version.