Instead of cropping a 4:3 image, I want to create a 16:9 image by taking a 16:9 image layer and placing the 4:3 over it (centered). The back layer (usually) is a blurry version of the 4:3 image.
Is there a software that does that for me?
(Example below)
Here's how I'd do it in GNU Image Manipulation Program:
Open the image.
Image > Canvas Size... scale the horizontal by 133.33 percent and the vertical by 100.00 percent, click Center then resize.
In the Layers panel, duplicate the layer.
Layers > Scale Layer... by 133.33 percent
Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur by 10 or more pixels
Layers > Layer to Image Size
Colors > Levels > Adjust as needed
Move this scaled and blurred layer below the duplicate.
Or are you looking to apply it to a video or to a whole folder of images?
I don't know of any software that does this automatically, but that shouldn't be hard to create manually.
If it's for a picture, you could quickly create a macro in Photoshop or GIMP, and if it's a video, a little AviSynth script could get the job done. Have you ever used any of these?
Yup, a software that does such thing. I'm doing by hand - Photoscape and, well... MSPaint.
Photoscape has all the required filtering and cropping. Paint is used for overlays.
I believe
http://www.photoshoponlinefree.com/ can do this (you'll need Flash, but it's probably the best example of good/clean Flash usage I've ever seen). Nothing to download either.
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/inde ... 306AA6BDGG for aspect ratio adjustment does work w/ above utility.
Probably ImageMagick can do such thing too