Photoshop elements help needed

[Disney Chick]

Can anyone tell me how to blur part of the picture, but not all of it? So far, I can blur inside of a chosen spot but not outside of it. It's the opposite of what I'm trying to do.

[Disney Chick]

nevermind. I think I got it.....

[Duffy Pratt]

From what you are describing, you have made a selection and now you want to invert the selection. There should be a command in elements that does exactly that.

When you are doing this sort of thing, unless you have nailed the selection perfectly, you will also want to "feather" your selection. Feathering gives a graduated effect to the changes you have made along the edges of the selection. How far the graduated effect extends for will depend on the number of pixels you use for the feathering effect.

Duffy

[Disney Chick]

Thanks! I had figured out how to "select inverse" but I had not figured out the feathering. I really do need to do that. So far I have scrapped all of my results for lack of it.