New Photoshop CS3: Refine Selection Edge
: Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 (Last Updated: April 20th, 2008)
: freetime
The Refine Edge is a new command in Photoshop CS3 (replacement of Selection Feather Command). It’s improves the quality of a selection’s edges and allows you to view the selection against different backgrounds for easy editing. This option can use with any selection not only in new Quick Selection tool. With CS3, all selection tool will include Refine Edge Button at option, you can also access Refine Edges windows by choose menu Select » Refine Edge or press Ctrl(Command) + Shift + R.
Note: In CS3 you can access Feather command by, menu Select » Modify » Feather or Ctrl(Command) + Shift + D
Refine Edge Options
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Radius: Determines the size of the region around the selection boundary in which edge refinement occurs. Increase radius to create a more exact selection boundary in areas with soft transitions or fine detail, such as those in short hair or fur, or blurred boundaries. |
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Contrast: Sharpens selection edges and removes fuzzy artifacts. Increasing contrast can remove excessive noise near selection edges caused by a high Radius setting. |
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Smooth: Reduces irregular areas or Jagged edges in the selection boundary, creating a smoother outline. Enter a value or move the slider from 0 to 100. |
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Feather: Creates a soft-edged transition between the selection and its surrounding pixels. Enter a value or move the slider to define the width of the feathered edge from 0 to 250 pixels. (See also Photoshop Selection Feather) |
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Contract/Expand: Shrinks or enlarges the selection boundary. Enter a value or move the slider to set the amount from 0 to 100% to expand, 0 to -100% to contract. Most useful for making subtle adjustments to soft-edged selections. Shrinking the selection can help remove unwanted background colors from selection edges. |
**pictures capture form Adobe Photoshop CS3
Selection Preview
| Click a Selection View icon to change preview. Or press “F” to toggle between each view modes. | ||||||||||
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Note: You can click description button at bottom of Refine Edge dialog, to expanded description section. Hover your cursor over each options to view its information.
Tip: For images where the colors of the selected object are distinct from the background, try increasing the Radius, applying Contrast to sharpen edges, then adjusting the Contract/Expand slider. For gray-scale images or images where the colors of the selected object and the background are very similar, try smoothing first, then the Feather option, then Contract/Expand..
You can reset the setting to default by hold down Alt(Option) key, Cancel button will turn to Reset, click reset restore setting to default. If the preview are too slow you can turn it off by deselect Preview to turn edge refinement previewing off. While adjusting the selection you can use Ctrl(Command) + Click with in image area to zoom-in or Alt(Option) + Click to zoom out. And also hold down Space-bar and drag your mouse to reposition the image or you can use Zoom tool or Hand tool button in Refine Edge windows if you like.
Refine Selection Edge in Photoshop earlier version
You can also do similar task to refine the selection edge in earlier version of photoshop. You can use smooth, expand or contract selection, locate in menu Selection » Modify, to do a certain operation. But to sharpen, blur or increase radius of selection edge it need additional processes.
First you have to save your selection to alpha channel, by choose menu Selection » Save Selection, and use color adjustment or photoshop filter to refine your select. For example, You can increase selection radius by use Filter Gaussian Blur to blur the saved alpha channel and use Curve or level to brighten its mid-tone. Or you can sharpen the selection edge by apply sharpen filter or use Brightness and Contrast to apply more contrast to alpha channel.
Continue on tutorial: Step-by-Step: Using Photoshop Refine Edge Command »
Relate Article:
- Photoshop CS3 Toolbox: Tool Quick Reference
- Photoshop CS3: Quick Selection Tool
- Photoshop Lasso Tool
- Photoshop Magic-Wand Tool
- Photoshop Marquee Tool
- Using Photoshop Tool Preset
- Using Photoshop Selection Feather
- Step-by-Step: Using Photoshop Refine Edge Command
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May 22nd, 2007 at 11:25 am
[...] Refine Edge Options See Full Tutorial Here [...]
September 26th, 2007 at 11:02 am
I am using CS3 on a Mac and when I use the “refine edges” tool, I can get my image to look perfect in the preview, but when I click “OK” it does not apply the changes. I have searched all over the internet and found no solution. What am I doing wrong.
September 26th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Hi Oliver
Thanks for your comment. I have try the refine edge command on different images with different modes. It’s mostly working fine.
As I describe above the refine edge command allow you to preview the selection in different methods. So when you apply the change to the selection, in some cases it may hard to be notice in just the regular dashed line selection view.
So did you check the newly apply selection with quick mask or save it as alpha channel?
If it still not working I think it might be your hardware or software problem. Or did you try this command with other machine?
If you have further question please feel free to leave it here. I’m glad too help
freetime
November 28th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Hi
I am having the same problem as Oliver. Although I apply achange in the refine edge window, the layer remains unchanged. The preview shows the change as I would like to apply it but the layer remains unaltered.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Joe
November 29th, 2007 at 12:23 am
Hi Joe
The Refine edge command do apply the change with Selection not pixel layer. So you will not see any change with the image in current layer unless you do some adjustment, fill color or paint with some tool.
The easiest way to see the change, after apply Refine Edge Command try to fill some color to layer.
freetime
December 4th, 2007 at 4:36 am
Same problem here on a Mac, weird!
December 5th, 2007 at 8:19 am
Same problem! Can you please explain further using an example exactly what steps need to be taken? Because I so don’t get it.
December 5th, 2007 at 8:50 am
Hi Kristina
You can try to test the effect of Refine Selection Edge Command by following steps.
1. Open new blank file and use Marquee Tool to make some selection.
2. Fill Color some color into selection using Paint Bucket Tool, you should have solid color hard edge shape.
3. Now with the same selection, use Refine Selection Edge command, enter 10 at Feature box. You should see the smooth edge when preview. then click OK.
4. Use Paint Bucket Tool again and fill some color into selection.
Now you will see the different. If you have further question please feel free to leave comment here.
I hope this will be useful and I will update this post to include the detailed step by step of using this tool soon.
freetime
December 5th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
Try creating a mask on the layer using the little rectangle with the circle button at the bottom of the layer palette. you should see a mask of your refine edges in the same layer with a link icon between the image and the mask.
when you are finished with your refine edges changes, right click on the layer and apply the mask. seemed to work for me, anyway.
December 5th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Yes, it working as well. Thanks for the tips msr968.
Anyway, as I state before, the Refine Edge Tool work very similar to Photoshop Feather Selection in earlier version of photoshop. In Photoshop CS3 you can access Feather command by using menu Selection » Modify » Feather or Ctrl(Command) + Shift + D.You can find more info about selection feather here
http://www.freetimefoto.com/photoshop/tips/using-feather.html
December 8th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
[...] Selection Feather is very useful, especially when make selection to adjust blur or out-focus object. By using appropriate amount of feather, your image will look more natural. Note: The Feather Command are depreciate in Photoshop CS3 and replace by more advance selection modification command call Refine Edge. See also Photoshop CS3 Refine Edge Command. [...]
April 16th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
CS3 has made the very useful and easy feathering feature an ordeal. I am unable to understand what freetime is saying above . . . assumes more knowledge of other Photoshop features than I have. When I use the Select/Modify/Feather commands, with preview, I can see no change to my image. All I want to do is feather the edges of a photo. It shouldn’t be this difficult. I’ve lost over an hour today just trying to follow the instructions above, with no result at all.
Please help!!
April 16th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Hi Jan
First of all, you have to understand that both refine edge and feather command work with selection.
You have to make some selection and then use the command to modify the selection.
To apply the change to your image you have to apply the modified selection to layer mask.
Anyway I will post the detailed instruction soon, if this couldn’t help could you please send your example image that you like to feather the edge and also the more detail about the final result. So I will create step-by-step tutorial to working with the feather command.
Thanks
freetime
April 20th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Hi All
I already post new tutorial about using Refine Edge command in detail, so please check it out.
Step-by-Step: Using Photoshop Refine Edge Command