Soften The Edges Of Selections - Adobe Photoshop CS6 User Manual

border where edge refinement occurs.
Refine Radius and Erase Refinements
toggle from one tool to the other, press Shift+E. To change the brush size, press the bracket keys.
Brush over soft areas such as hair or fur to add fine details to the selection.
Smart Radius Automatically adjusts the radius for hard and soft edges found in the border region. Deselect this option if the border is
uniformly hard- or soft-edged, or if you want to control the Radius setting and refinement brushes more precisely.
Radius Determines the size of the selection border in which edge refinement occurs. Use a small radius for sharp edges, and a large one
for softer edges.
Smooth Reduces irregular areas ("hills and valleys") in the selection border to create a smoother outline.
Feather Blurs the transition between the selection and surrounding pixels.
Contrast When increased, soft-edged transitions along the selection border become more abrupt. Typically, the Smart Radius option and
refinement tools are more effective.
Shift Edge Moves soft-edged borders inward with negative values or outward with positive ones. Shifting these borders inward can help
remove unwanted background colors from selection edges.
Decontaminate Colors Replaces color fringes with the color of fully selected pixels nearby. The strength of color replacement is
proportionate to the softness of selection edges.
Important: Because this option changes pixel color, it requires output to a new layer or document. Retain the original layer so you can
revert back to it if needed. (To easily see changes in pixel color, choose Reveal Layer for the View Mode.)
Amount Changes the level of decontamination and fringe replacement.
Output To Determines whether the refined selection becomes a selection or mask on the current layer, or produces a new layer or
document.

Soften the edges of selections

You can smooth the hard edges of a selection by anti-aliasing and by feathering.
Anti-aliasing Smooths the jagged edges of a selection by softening the color transition between edge pixels and background pixels. Because only
the edge pixels change, no detail is lost. Anti-aliasing is useful when cutting, copying, and pasting selections to create composite images.
Anti-aliasing is available for the Lasso tool, the Polygonal Lasso tool, the Magnetic Lasso tool, the Elliptical Marquee tool, and the Magic Wand
tool. (Select a tool to display its options bar.)
Note: You must specify this option before using these tools. After a selection is made, you cannot add anti-aliasing.
Feathering Blurs edges by building a transition boundary between the selection and its surrounding pixels. This blurring can cause some loss of
detail at the edge of the selection.
You can define feathering for the Marquee tools, the Lasso tool, the Polygonal Lasso tool, or the Magnetic Lasso tool as you use the tool, or you
can add feathering to an existing selection.
Note: Feathering effects become apparent only after you move, cut, copy, or fill the selection.
Adobe recommends
Video tutorial: Flexible feathering
video2brain - Tim Grey
For superior results, feather masks rather
than selections.
Select pixels using anti-aliasing
1. Select the Lasso tool, the Polygonal Lasso tool, the Magnetic Lasso tool, the Elliptical Marquee tool, or the Magic Wand tool.
2. Select Anti-aliased in the options bar.
Define a feathered edge for a selection tool
1. Select any of the lasso or marquee tools.
2. Enter a Feather value in the options bar. This value defines the width of the feathered edge and can range from 0 to 250 pixels.
Define a feathered edge for an existing selection
1. Choose Select > Modify > Feather.
tools Let you precisely adjust the border area in which edge refinement occurs. To quickly
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