I've run across a few pictures like the first one on this post at ars technica which have a soft blur around the edges. I've often seen it in b/w pics more than color. Does anyone know how this is done? I've got CS2 and I've tried adding a duplicate layer with gaussian blur and then playing with the blend modes but no dice. Any ideas?

 

It's not clear what shot you're referring to, could you hotlink it, or at least describe what the shot is?

 

Referring to depth-of-field/background blur/softening the background/aperture kinda thing...

?

 

yeah the pic on the link:

The softening of the foreground, not the background. You see it's like the edges alone are blurred.

 

feathering.

 

It looks like this technique to me:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/glow.shtml

Give it a shot, it's pretty effective. I used this technique on a shot I took at my friends' wedding with my little S410. Almost everyone that has seen it has said it was one of their favorite photos from the event.

 

Thanks guys! The link Billiam put up just happened to go through pretty much what I tried at first, since that's what it looked like had been done. Still, the results weren't as dramatic as I had expected. I'll give it another shot later on...
I hadn't thought of using feathering so thanks sarlacc. I've use feathering a lot before for image/texture editing but I guess I never thought of using it in actual photographs.

... been using PS since 2.5.1 mostly for 3D textures and web stuff, but I'm just getting into this photography thing and it's like a whole new app