How To Blend Image Edges into Background?

[Emawk]

Hi, 

I want to create a YouTube thumbnail and need to blend the edges of an image into a black background.

I tried using the gradient tool, but it seems to be no intricate enough.

For example, I want to seamlessly blend the attached Thomas Edison image into a black background to create the attached thumbnail. How do I go about doing that? 

Thanks

[Ofnuts]

You would use a layer mask. You add a layer filled with black under the image, add a mask to the image (initially white) and then pain the mask in black where you want to see the background. In practice you can start with a very large and hard brush to paint in black everything except an area around the head, then use a smaller and softer brush for the detail. And you can paint in white to "unerase" if needed.


  Edison.xcf (Size: 231.34 KB / Downloads: 114)