Creating Blur Overlay Effect?

[Mr. Zero 0]

Hello everybody. My first post, even though I have been here for some time looking at your great Photoshop tutorials. Outstanding good job, you guys have done!Now I have a smaller request on how to create the blur overlay effect from Vista Program windows.I have tried the most oblivious with creating a rectangle, set opacity to 15% and then apply blur to it. Unfortunately low layers will not be effect by the blur since blur on white does noting.Can someone tell me or point what I'm suppose to do, to get the wanted effect?Thanks

[wutske 0]

Make a copy of the original layer and apply a blur effect to it. Add a layer mask to the same layer and edit it. Adding a white rectangle to the layer mask will make the blurred layer visible, while a black rectangle will make the blurred layer invisible.Add another layer and fill it with a color you like. Copy the layer mask previously made to this (colored) layer. Play around a bit with the layer modus to get the right effect.I hope my explication is a bit clear

Edited September 2, 2007 by wutske (see edit history)

[Mr. Zero 0]

Sorry it went a bit too fast for me.Could you do a step by step for me? I'm casual photoshop'er so I have the basic down but all that with layer mask is confusing me.But thank you for the reply .

[FirefoxRocks 0]

Oh, and by the way, I think this is an effect that I want to achieve somewhere.Is there a way to do this in the GIMP?I don't have Photoshop for 3 reasons:1. Too expensive2. Unnecessary3. I prefer open-source software.

[wutske 0]

I did this in the GIMP, so I can only give explain exactly how you could do this in The GIMP ...So here's how I did it:1) load an image, now you have one layer, the background2) make a copy of the background layer (right-click on the background layer and select duplicate layer)3) Make sure this new (duplicated layer) is selected and apply a gaussian blur to it (filters>blur>gaussian blur). A 5px radius is okay.4) Add a layer mask to the same (duplicated and now blurred) layer. Right-click on this layer and select 'add layer mask', you'll get a pop up screen that asks you which color the mask should be, choose black (transparant).In the layer, channel, pads window you'll see a black box next to the layer preview of the duplicated layer, this is your layer mask. If there's a white rectangle around it, this means it's selected and everything you do is applied to the mask.5) Make sure the layer mask is selected and draw a white rectangle. You'll see that where you've drawn the rectanlge, the blurred layer will become visible.If you want to colorify it, do the following:1) add a new layer and fill it with the color you like2) set the layer mode to 'color'3) add a black layer mask4) select the layer mask of the duplicated (blurred) layer, press CTRL+A (select all), then CTRL+C (copy), then select the layer mask of the colored layer and press CTRL+V.Eventualy, you should end up with something like this:ps. The process is exactly the same for photoshop, except some things might be in a different location and might have a different name.