Effect for "fuzzing" a portrait orientation over the width of a landscape orientation?
Answered
I am creating a slide show for one of those photo frame things. It has 1366x768 (16:9) pixels.
The landscape photos are easy; I just crop a nice 16:9 area, and have an export preset to save the result at 1366x768.
The portrait orientation photos are a challenge. I crop them to be as wide as possible, but few are suitable for cropping 16:9 out of. The darkness on either side when displayed in the photo frame is disconcerting.
What I would really like is an Effect preset that does an effect commonly seen on TV or YouTube, where the original portrait orientation is nice and sharp in the middle, but on either side of it is a fuzzed-out version of the original portrait image, in order to fill the landscape frame.
Is there anything like that available for ON1? I browsed the various Effects Filters, and could see nothing similar.
Thanks in advance for any advice offered!
-
There is no filter to easily do that. In Photo raw you'd have to manually create each one and you won't be able to make a preset to speed things up. However, once you've figured out the process it shouldn't be too difficult. If you want some ideas on how to do that, post it here and I can write something up tomorrow.
1 -
The "Gallery Wrap" almost does what I want.
Is there any way to adjust the softness in Gallery Wrap? It is not enough to keep from being distracting.
Otherwise, I would appreciate some pointers to get me started.
In Photoshop, I'd first expand the canvas 3x horizontally, dup the base layer, flip it horizontally and move it to one side, dup that layer and move it to the other side, merge the two new layers, give them a heavy gaussian blur, then crop my 16:9 out of those layers.
0 -
Jan, If I understand what you are looking for you could add 2 blur filters and using the masking bug set to linear right on one and linear left on the other to blur the edges. Set the amount of blur on each to your liking. Once you have something you like on one photo simply save this as a preset which can then be applied to any photo. Once applied to another photo you can adjust the two masks on the blur filters to then refine the edges on the new image.
0 -
Jan, you have it pretty much figured out already. Since On1 no longer has a canvas size option, you'll need to start with a layer the size of the finished photo, so just save one of your landscape photos to use as a template and open it in layers to define the canvas size before you start. You can create it with a solid color is you think you'll need it as a background.
You should have your photo cropped before you add it as a layer because cropping applies to the whole project and not to the layer. Add it as a layer above the template and adjust it as needed.
Copy your photo layer, add whatever blur you want, then make a copy of the blurred layer. Adjust each to the left and right. I'm pretty sure the canvas will trim any overhang for you, so you shouldn't need to crop again.
From there you should be able to export.
If you find I've made a mistake in any of this, let me know. I might try it today just to see that I have it right.
Edited: I tried the method above and found a flaw in the plan. When you crop the portrait you have to export it before it's added as a layer. If you don't, adding it as a layer will change the crop to match the canvas.
Also I found that using any generic landscape photo as a blurred background for a portrait photo looks just as good and is much easier to achieve that fiddling with left and right layers.
1
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
4 comments