How to feather photos in a slideshow?

chetnet

Newbie Joined: Jul 20, 2010 18:50 Messages: 22 Offline

Solved by

Oct 07, 2017 15:34

Disclaimer: I'm no expert in either of the products I mention below so forgive me if I'm missing the obvious somehow. Spent lots of time researching.

So I've done many slideshows with PD13, without ever realizing before that I really do NOT want my photos to have a 'hard' edge, and I want them to blend more into the background. Hence, I thought if I could mass feather my photos beforehand, that may do the trick. I use Corel PaintShop, and apparently I can script to do edits in batch. That's great. So I did a test of feathering on one photo and thought it looked good. However, when I see it in Cyberlink, there's still a hard edge there, so I'm not sure if my problem is really with the photo before it gets into PD, or if the problem is due to how PD may always set an edge for the photos?? I was hoping there would've been some type of easy 'feather/border mask' to simply apply to all photos while I'm building the clip but I sure as heck can't find it. Anyone know of workarounds to do this, even if I have to get rid of the extra background motion I'm using in this example.

Thanks!

Chet


Filename	Feather-test.JPG	Download
Description	Feathered photo in PD13 has hard edge
Filesize	42 Kbytes
Downloaded:	18 time(s)

PD13, Win10 (64bit)

Longedge

Senior Contributor Joined: Apr 28, 2011 15:38 Messages: 1504 Offline

Oct 07, 2017 16:20

I only have PDR15. I think your version includes masking which is what you need to achieve what you are after. I'm not sure where it is in PD13 but if you search help for "Mask" I'm sure you find it.

chetnet

Newbie Joined: Jul 20, 2010 18:50 Messages: 22 Offline

Oct 07, 2017 16:33

Quote I only have PDR15. I think your version includes masking which is what you need to achieve what you are after. I'm not sure where it is in PD13 but if you search help for "Mask" I'm sure you find it.

Thanks. But if I'm not mistaken, masking will only apply the same exact shape, right? Therefore, if I have rectangle pic, followed by an oval pic, it won't automatically mask/feather the edges of each correctly. Is that correct understanding? PD13, Win10 (64bit)

Longedge

Senior Contributor Joined: Apr 28, 2011 15:38 Messages: 1504 Offline

Oct 07, 2017 16:48

There are a variety of mask shapes and (if it's the same in your version) you can apply a varying degree of 'feathering' to achieve the softening effect that you are after.

e.g. - screenshot

p.p.s - regarding the question of multiple different shaped images, you would apply and arrange a mask to suit each image. Alternatively create the slideshow without any mask and then apply a single suitable mask to the final video and produce it again.


Filename	screenshot.jpg	Download
Description	Masked image with text overlay
Filesize	103 Kbytes
Downloaded:	92 time(s)

This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at Oct 07. 2017 17:56

chetnet

Newbie Joined: Jul 20, 2010 18:50 Messages: 22 Offline

Oct 08, 2017 12:06

Quote There are a variety of mask shapes and (if it's the same in your version) you can apply a varying degree of 'feathering' to achieve the softening effect that you are after.

e.g. -

p.p.s - regarding the question of multiple different shaped images, you would apply and arrange a mask to suit each image. Alternatively create the slideshow without any mask and then apply a single suitable mask to the final video and produce it again.

Thanks Longedge. But having to do one mask per photo is the problem to begin with really, as it means doing 300 and more photos one mask at a time, right?

Maybe I should confirm something first....has anyone brought a single FEATHERED photo into PD and that photo looked the same in the slideshow, or did PD show a new sharp edge for the photo boundary, like my screenshot? I will try to do more testing as well. PD13, Win10 (64bit)

ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline

Oct 09, 2017 14:55

Hi chetnet -

If you're masking large numbers of photos, I agree that would be a bit tedious.

If your graphics software can batch process the photos to feather the edges, that's the best way to go. For the faded edge (which is a transparent gradient) to be retained, you MUST save the photos in .PNG format.

If you do that, your soft egded photos will be displayed in PDR as you wish.

I assume you're building the slideshow manually. If you're using the slideshow templates, there'd be no guarantee your soft edges would be retained.

Cheers - Tony
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chetnet

Newbie Joined: Jul 20, 2010 18:50 Messages: 22 Offline

Oct 09, 2017 22:02

Tony, Thank you so much for reminding me about the png! Totally slipped my mind, ha. Having said that, it appears that PD13 still doesn't remove the hard edge border. In the first attachment, you can see how the pic looks when I open it up in a 2nd photo suite program..you can see the png feathered look. However, when I bring it into PD13, the 2nd attachment, you can now see the background in the 'feathered' section (perfect) but it still has the hard edges. I am not using a mask as I want to avoid that since the mask would have to be applied for each and every photo as they are different sizes and shapes. And yes, I build the slideshow manually. So, is masking the ONLY way to pull off what should be an easy plug-in process, or so it seems??


Filename	Feather-test-PNG-screenshot.JPG	Download
Description	Screenshot of opening up my saved PNG in a 2nd photo suite.
Filesize	49 Kbytes
Downloaded:	18 time(s)


Filename	Feather-test-PNG-inPD13.JPG	Download
Description	This is what the PNG looks like in PD13 Preview window
Filesize	51 Kbytes
Downloaded:	22 time(s)

PD13, Win10 (64bit)

ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline

Oct 09, 2017 23:59

I think it's less to do with PDR13, & more to do with the settings you're applying in the other software... unless there are none.

As an example, in Paint.NET, you can "Fade Edges" on a photo & adjust the width & strength of the feather. A lower strength/intensity setting would leave the edge on the photo (even though it's slightly faded).

If you look at the screenshot you posted from the other photo suite, the edge is still there. Look at the shutters & trees at the top. The visibility of the "edge" will vary depending on the background used.

Perhaps you could attach (a) an original photo & (b) the same photo feathered in that software. That would be helpful.

This little slideshow was made by using that "Fade Edge" effect in Paint.NET, then building & producing in PDR13.

Cheers - Tony
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chetnet

Newbie Joined: Jul 20, 2010 18:50 Messages: 22 Offline

Oct 10, 2017 20:15

Thanks Tony!

I used the transparent gradient feature in Paint.net (which I use all of the time but never knew it could fade, albeit a bit wonky), and sure enough, it proved that PD13 is not the problem. Back to the corel forum I go, ha, because I need to use that scripting tool in order to batch once I figure out the proper result. Very good to know PD13 was not modifying and adding the edge. Thank you!

Chet PD13, Win10 (64bit)