You can find the chat transcript from 4/18/04 here

You know what its like- you have a great shot but it seems to busy - the subject of your photo just doesn’t seem to stand out like you thought it would - well all is not lost - there is plenty you can do to improve your photo even after you have taken it
First you need to scan your photo if it’s a regular photo - or open your digital photo in your graphics programme.
Create a copy of your photo so we don’t actually touch the original at all - just in case we don’t like our results - we can always go back and try again
All my screen shots are in Photoshop 7 but the same basic principals apply to many programs.

I like the look on my sons face here but the photo is spoiled by everything in the background
Lets fix it - first we need to select the subject - I am using the magnetic lasso tool
Make sure you feather your selection by at least 10 pixels so you don’t have a hard line around your subject - select just around the OUTSIDE the subject rather than inside - Try to get as accurate selection as you can but we can fix up any stray bits later if we need to.

The magnetic lasso tool hugs the area you drag it around based on the contrast between the colours of the pixels - so it works better on areas where there is a high contrast - On areas of low contrast you are better to drag further out from the subject because we can go back and fix them later (see round the hair area)
In Photoshop there is an easy way to select the areas you have missed and this is to use the quick mask mode - -Inverse your selection- and push the quick mask button, which is circle with the shaded outline under the colour swatch

In Photoshop Elements, which doesn't contain a Quick Mask Mode, simply use the Selection Brush instead: and choose Mask in the Mode box from the Options Bar.

Your selected area will turn a nice shade of red - you can now zoom in on your photo and use any size paint brush your require to paint in more areas to increase your selection area.

Once you are happy you have the area selected to your satisfaction we can now proceed to blur the background - go back to selection mode by pressing the left hand button with the shaded circle inside the white square (beside the quick mask button) - and your mask magically becomes a selection again
You can use any of the blur filters - I like the gaussian blur and I have used about a 15 pixel blur here - The more you blur the background the more your subject will stand out in your photo but I like to keep a realistic look



If you want to go one step further you can desaturate the colour from the background and then your subject will really stand out - to do this in Photoshop - with your selection still active -
image - adjustments - desaturate .
Here is my finished photo - my subject really is brought to the centre of attention now

There are many other methods of achieving similar results - this is just one -
The best way is to just play around with the various blur filters until you come up with a result you like.

For a printable version of this Quick Class, click here