Feather Effect - cutting around pictures

Sometimes there are only parts of image which you want to use. Fireworks has some simple editing tools that allow you to cut parts you wish use from a picture while leaving the rest.

Original Image	Selected picture with feathering

By using the Feather property you can get nice smooth clean edges around your selected part, rather than a jagged edge.

Step 1

Use the lasso tools to cut around the part of the picture you want to keep. You may find that the polygon tool is the best for this. Take your time, keep zooming in and out of your picture and keep close to the edge of your object.

Step 2

Once you have marked around the object you want to cut change the Edge property in the property bar to 8 or 10 - the number determines the softness of the edge. Then choose Copy and Paste your object into a new document or as part of another one.

Image with marked out with polygon tool	With edge property set to Hard (no feathering)

 

And that's all there is too it: but it does take time to do well!

Get the look !

Click to download the Original Picture. Use this to practise cutting out the part you want.

This is a useful skill to master as it helps you remove the objects you want from distracting backgrounds.