ASP: Creating fading edges in images

Creating Faded Edges
There are several ways to create edges on an image which fade away into the background. One way is as follows:
1. Begin with a canvas which is larger than the image to be blurred, around all four edges. One way to do this is to use the Image->Canvas Size dialog.
2. Use the marquee tool to select an area which is a few pixels in from the edge of the image.



3. Use Select->Invert to select the border around the image.


4.

Use Select->Feather to blur the selected area by a few pixels. A value of 4 pixels was used here.

5.

Now, use Filter->Blur-> Gaussian Blur to produce the final effect. A value of 4.1 was used.



6.

Finally, crop any unneeded whitespace around the image and save it.


http://www.mtholyoke.edu/help/creating-pages/imaging/xfade.shtml