How to Extract an Image from the Background and Fade Out Images Using GIMP

GIMP is an open-source Photoshop-alternate image manipulation program. I use two of its capabilities quite often: extracting an image (such as a face) from a background, and fading out part of an image.

To extract the image from background, the Wiki article, How to Extract an Image in GIMP is excellent.

For fading images, try the following method posted by Tim Huffman on Geeks with Blogs:

Gradients can also be created in Powerpoint. For example, see the post, Image Fading Technique in Powerpoint