blurring the background of a pic...

[coldfused]

say you are looking at a pic.the object or person in the pic is in view.the background is however blurred.how do you do this?i'm sorry for being stupid but i am new to photoshop.you cant use the magic wand to select the bacground because of the change in color from one pixel to the next.but i know there is a way because i see it often.
(any help would be greatly appreciated)

 

[gollyg]

welcome to the wonderful world of selections. In photoshop there are many ways of selecting areas in an image - each is suited to a particular graphic. You may even want to use a combination of selection methods. The magic wand is good for areas of similar color, but for the edges of images often a tool such as the magnetic lasso is more appopriate. This tool can follow an edge (if there is sufficient contrast). If not the pen tool might be a good choice, as you can define any path you want and convert it to a selection.

For less geometic shapes try the quick mask mode - this allows you to use all the photoshop tools to define an area of an image that will become a selection, and it supports 8 bit masks, meaning that the edges can be feathered where necessary. To enter quick mask mode click the button located under the color swatch on the toolbar.

Once you have selected an area save the selection! then you can use it over and over to apply filters such as blur, protecting you image (you may have to invert the selection first).

There are also some good photoshop sites that offer tutorials on making selections, such as

http://www.teamphotoshop.com.

Hope you work it out! Good luck