Expert: Kamal Krishna - 3/5/2008

Question
QUESTION: hi this is nazish here, i just bought photoshop couple days, but i dont remember much of the stuff on it.. last time i used photoshop was in high school.. i have worked with microsoft picture it and it was much easier but photoshop is giving me alot of trouble...
How do i make the pic transparent so that i can add it into some beautiful and creative backgrounds?
Also, how do i give the picture a soft edge?
Can you please help me with this... i am going crazy with this software!! thanks

ANSWER: Hi Nazish,
Here u go....

Transparent:
After opening the file press 'F7' or Got to the menu Window>Layers.
The Layers dialogue box opens, there on the top look for 'Opacity:' Here you can change the value from 0% to 100% (0=Total Transparent - 100= Opaque)

Soft edges:
You can do it manually by pressing 'E' for activating Eraser then press 'F5' to open up the Brushes dialogue box, here select a soft edged brush, and erase the edges of the picture.

Do let me know if u need further assistance

- Kamal Krishna


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: ok thanks.... i was able to edit my pic the way i wanted but i was wondering if i can add my own content to the pic... i mean my own background to it.... it had several of them already but i wanted to be more creative with it.... is it possible and if so how can i do that??? thanks

Answer
Hi Nazish,
there are so many exciting things you can do with photoshop. Infact anything is possible.

you can add delete anything from a picture.

here are couple of tutorials to start with.
http://tutorialoutpost.com/tutorials/photoshop/photo-editing

All the best.

-regards,
Kamal Krishna