Adobe Photoshop’s layering tools allow users to easily create a natural blend between images (in layers) to create unique and polished designs.
Below, we’ve outlined how to fade an image in Photoshop, whether you’d like to blend it into the background, use a gradient effect to blend two images, or just make one image a bit more transparent.
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Fading an Image or Layer in Adobe Photoshop
Step 1: Select the image you’d like to fade. You can do this using any of Photoshop’s robust selection tools. You’re going to draw around the section of the image you’d like to fade. The Object Selection Tool will allow you to click the subject or background (there are other parameters as well) and have photoshop attempt to smartly select those pixels. It is hit and miss, it works better with more simple images that are in higher contrast to their background. The Quick Selection tool (which looks like a paintbrush and a dotted line) will attempt to match the image’s nearby edges. This tool works best with simple vectors and images that have very few colors and a sharp separation from their background visually. Click on the tool that you prefer, and then start drawing around your image. The Magic Want tool is a more legacy version of the Object Selection tool. You click an area of an image and Photoshop will do its best to select the pixels that are similar to the area you clicked. For this example, I will be using the Rectangular Marquee tool to make my selection.
Step 2: Once you have your selection made, go to the main Layers menu, select “New”, and then “Layer Via Cut”. This will create a new layer for the selected area and cut it from the original layer.
Step 3: Next, go to the Layers panel (it should be located in the bottom right corner of Photoshop) and right click and select “Blending Options.”
Step 4: Selecting Blending Options will open the “Layer Style” menu. Here you can select different blending modes and toggle the opacity of the selected layer.
Depending on the look you are going for or the type of blend you are making you might need to add a new layer with a solid color as I did in the example above. Use the color selector tool to grab a color from your image to keep the color palette cohesive. Black and white solids can help lighten or darken an image. Play with the Blending Modes and check out all the different looks you can achieve with those.
Cover Image background via Taisiya Kozorez.
