Printable View
HI,
I wondered whether there was a quick way to blur part of an image? I have a photo of a shopfront and rather than crop the image I thought I would simply blur the neighbouring shops/buildings as they are pretty ghastly looking. Is there a tool or technique anyone could recommend please?
Make a clone of the image, blur the image and apply a circular transparency.
Here's an example
Thanks Gary, but how did you blur the second image...? I haven't blurred anything ever... or not since I used psp.
Photo Tool > Blur Sharpness.
The maximum blur with the slider is -100 but you can manually enter a negative number. I used -300 which is a moderate amount of blur. -600 would be even more blurred.
Andy, what Xara application are you using? "Xara 4" is in your About Me detail.
There are blurs in Live effects and there are blurs under Photo Filter Presets.
You can blur with displaced and scaled transparencies of an image.
You can blur with a CSS3 style:
AcornQuote:
<style>#blur {
-webkit-filter: blur(10px);
-moz-filter: blur(10px);
-o-filter: blur(10px);
-ms-filter: blur(10px);
filter: blur(10px);
}
</style>
I am using Xara PGD10.
I'll have a toy with the suggestions later.
Thanks.
Acorn - I think what AndyD is asking is how to blur a portion of a photo while leaving the rest of the photo sharp. Will this script to that?
Gary, I was only answering the blur part. Your overlay and transparency still would need to be applied.Quote:
Originally Posted by gwpriester
Each of the methods has a different blur effect so I thought it would useful to list those I have used.
I hope others have other approaches as I am sure they are all equally useful.
The CSS3 blur can be applied to any shape, smart shape or text without forcing Xara to create an image; Photo blur is just for images.
It would be better to replace the "#blur" with ".blur" (changing an ID to a Class) and Naming any shape with htmlclass=blur.
CSS3 blur does have some browser version issues so do test first.
Examples of CSS3 filer are http://bennettfeely.com/filters/.
Acorn
P.S. CSS3 effects are for Web rendering so won't occur in PDF - I should have made that clear earlier!
Yeah, I was more thinking of obscuring a small patch of an image. I am sure I used to be able to do it in psp years ago. Thanks for your feedback guys.
There are many ways to do this in Xara Andy. Here's the method I prefer:
Off for a few days to Dunoon. Thanks for the advice chaps.
This is how I would do that in XaraQuote:
Originally Posted by AndyD
(But it's a lot easier in PaintShop Pro)
Open your image>Clone it (Ctrl+K).
Lock the original image.
Highlight the copy+the circle>Ctrl+A, then Ctrl+3 to remove the surrounding area.
Fx:
Soften Filter>Gaussian Blur.
Unlock the original and of course make it visible again ;-)
Joëlle
Hello to Scotland from Sussex :-)
Attachment 120557
Welcome to TG Joelle. great idea. You can also do it with masks in Xara too.
Since we are all showing off our various methods, here's a method for creating a Zoom blur effect.
Start with a reasonably high res photo (this one is about 700dpi). Add a circle and add the photo inside the circle and change the resolution to 300dpi.
Apply a 98% Flat transparency to both images and create a blend. I have created a 200-step Blend.
My method for copying the photo is select the photo with the Fill Tool and select Repeating Tile from the drop down menu.
Select the circle and Edit > Paste > Paste Attributes.
Then change the resolution on the Infobar.
There is many ways to do this but I like to use the rectangle region tool for such an area, apply blur then enhance the image slightly. This was done in PG&D 11.
Stygg
A method I like to use to blur a portion of an image is similar to some methods shown in that I layer two copies of the photo and blur one but then I use the eraser tool to brush away the top copy where I need. If I need just a small area of detail then I blur the top layer and use the eraser to brush detail back in, if I need just a small area blurred then I reverse the process and blur the bottom copy.
I like your approach, Frances. I haven't used this particular method before. I'm going to give this a try.Quote:
Originally Posted by angelize
Wow, never knew you could go 'out of slider bounds' on that. Are there any other tools which allow stepping outside the 'suggested range'?Quote:
Originally Posted by gwpriester
Thanks for all this very interesting information.
Quite a few of the tools take numeric input which is outside slider range. I believe that a lot of the numeric input has a 0-999 range ... working from memory again. Always dangerous.Quote:
Originally Posted by hseiken
I didn't know the numeric input range can be larger than the slider range. Good to know - could be useful.
Lots of great ideas in this thread! It's good having multiple approaches to pull out of your hat for doing similar things. Someday a particular task may be made far easier by choosing one approach over another.
Egg - thanks for your video tutorials. Cool to hear your voice. :cool: You have a nice car too.
Cheers Ross. Not my car I'm afraid, it's my son-in-laws.