Blur image effect

[Egg Bramhill]

There are many ways to do this in Xara Andy. Here's the method I prefer:

[AndyD]

Off for a few days to Dunoon. Thanks for the advice chaps.

[Joelle]

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.

This is how I would do that in Xara
(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 :-)

[Egg Bramhill]

Welcome to TG Joelle. great idea. You can also do it with masks in Xara too.

[gwpriester]

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.

[stygg2003]

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

[angelize]

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.

[Ron Duke]

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.

[hseiken]

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.

Wow, never knew you could go 'out of slider bounds' on that. Are there any other tools which allow stepping outside the 'suggested range'?

[AndyD]

Thanks for all this very interesting information.