PS Secrets

You've seen many shows where they pixelate part of an image to scramble it. Sometimes it's used to hide the more interesting parts in a nude shot. This technique is also used to conceal information like numbers on credit cards or license plates.

In this tutorial you'll see how to easily achieve this effect with Photoshop Elements.

This tutorial was inspired by a question from Sue. You can see the question and answer here.

Let's get started.

STEP 1
Open an image you want to try this technique on

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STEP 2
Use your favorite selection technique to make a selection of the area you want to affect. I used the Lasso tool for my selection.

You can also give it a feather amount of 2-5 pixels by going up to the Menu bar and choosing Select>Feather… That will give a softer transition on the edges of your selection, but it's entirely optional.



Press Control+J (Mac:Command+J) to put the selected area on it's own layer. This will protect the original state of the photo.

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STEP 3
Go up to the Filter menu and choose Pixelate>Mosaic…



In the Dialog box, use the slider to adjust the Cell Size to where you want based on the preview. When it looks how you want it click OK.



Here's a look at the before and after:

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That wraps up this Photoshop Elements tutorial on how to scramble a photo. See more Photoshop Elements tutorials by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page.

Until next time,
Rick

http://www.essential-photoshop-elements.com/pixelate.html