Empowering the use of Social Media for Business & Personal Growth

Make your Avatar POP!

My personal Avatar is actually a screen shot from a television appearance. I was sitting with all the studio lighting in front of a green screen. The images behind me were broadcast as blurred on purpose. It’s a standard TV thing.

Here’s how to do that effect yourself, without TV.

Take any picture and open it up in your favorite image manipulation program. Photoshop, Paint.net or Gimp are some of mine.

Now highlight the portion that you want to “pop” (I’m thinking that’s you)

Now Invert your selection . That means to tell your program to choose everything besides what you’ve highligted. HINT: typically “CONTROL + I” will invert your selection.

Go to effects , and find your “Gaussian Blur”. Play with the setting until you are satisfied with the background blur.

Now Save . That’s all there is to it. Want to see it in action?

Here’s Tamara Doris before:

Here’s the same photo with a blurred background:

See the difference?

Here’s picture of me back in 1984:

Here’s the same picture blurred:

My friend Ernie isn’t going to be too happy about my blurring him, but hey, it’s all about me! ; )

Time spent – maybe all of two minutes!

If you want have a little more fun you can also make your background Black and White, or Sepia!

Now go blur out your buddies and make your Avatar or picture POP!

Mike Mueller at http://AreWeConnected.com