Apply soft edges to image using CSS

Question

Given an image, is there a way to soften the edges using css? Or through some js library (although css would be preferred)? The idea is that the edges of the image should blur into transparency, so they fit in better with the background.

Example, original image:

Image with softened edges:

There are many similar questions asked on stackoverflow, however none (that I can find) offer an answer to do exactly this. Mostly they're concerned with blurring the whole image, or setting a semi-transparent border on the image, neither being what I'm looking for.

Answer 1

You can try something like this:

JSFiddle Example

HTML :

<div id="image-container"><div>

CSS:

#image-container {
background: url(http://pic2.ooopic.com/11/26/30/31b1OOOPIC48.jpg) left top no-repeat;
box-shadow: 25px 25px 50px 0 white inset, -25px -25px 50px 0 white inset; 
width: 300px;
height: 300px;
}