Adobe Photoshop mini masterclass on Select and Mask. The video and written steps explain how every tool in Select and Mask work, so you can fix all the common problems we get with cutouts. Eliminate Jaggies, blockies, smudgies and halos.

Part 1/2 Hair and Fur is here.

When you make selections to cut out images, often you will have problems with the edges. You’ll see halos, jaggies, blockies, smudgies and other problems. (I just coined the phrases Smudgies and blockies, you’ll know them when you see them.) Photoshop contains a number of tools to address these edge problems. Many people aren’t using all these tools because they often don’t know what each tool does. That’s my goal here, to explain these tools and demonstrate when to use them. I wanted to make a comprehensive walk-through of every feature in Select and Mask and how it works. Here is Part 2 of this tutorial, dealing with Smooth Edges. Part 1 is here

This tutorial is made in Photoshop 2024. It will work with Photoshop CC and newer.

We will use a car because it has nice smooth hard edges. We will focus on these types of edges in this tutorial. Often I will use the Pen tool to get a very accurate selection on this kind of task if I’m going high resolution or print. See how to use Photoshop Pen Tool here

For a faster and easier way to cut out these objects, please watch the first 3 steps of this tutorial.

Select and Mask can be used on all selections, no matter what tool you use to make the selection.

Lets make a selection

Choose the Object Selection or Quick Selection tool

Look for Select Subject at the top toolbar

Choose Cloud for a better quality selection

Tip: Cloud gives the best quality, but you have to be connected to the internet for it to work. Otherwise use device.

You can change the preferences to choose Cloud all the time

Photoshop Settings>Image Processing>Select Subject Processing, choose Cloud.

You will now see a selection

Notice an extra bit got selected at the back

Use Object selection

Hold down Alt/Option for the subtract option and draw around the selection boundaries you want to remove

Photoshop will remove that portion and snap to the object.

Finish making the selection off you need to. I have many tutorials on making selections, there are many ways to do it using the magic tools, quick mask, pen tool, color range, marquee tools and more. I have tutorials on those here as well as a course on Photoshop Selection Secrets.

If you used the steps above or a different selection tool, let’s refine the edges now.

Choose Select and Mask (If it doesn’t show, choose a selection tool for the toolbox on the left of Photoshop).

Select and Mask Workspace Tools.

Let’s look at the tools on the left.

Refine Tool is for soft and semi transparent areas. We covered this in part 1 of this tutorial

Then we have the brush tool.

The brush tool lets us paint wherever we like without any algorithm working. It’s fully manual

If we paint with the brush tool we can add areas to the selection.

Hold down Alt/Option to remove areas. This tool allows us the freedom to manually choose edges and areas that got missed.

In this case, we are painting away the extra bit on the back. We are in Black and White viewing mode which lets us view the mask. (This was covered in part 1).

The object selection tool is the same Object Selection in Photoshop and uses ai to detect edges and objects

We can add the car in the garage with a single click when using the object selection in Select and Mask.

The Lasso tool uses a lasso to add or remove from the selection, Like the brush, but it’s selection based.

Make a selection and that areas shows

Hold Alt/Option and make a selection to remove from that area.

We don’t have to fill when using the lasso tool, it does it automatically.

If we use the polygon Lasso tool, we can edit with straight lines. This is a very useful option.

Using Global Refinements in Select and Mask

Let’s explore the global refinements. These tools are designed to help with smooth edges such as skin or hard surface objects.

Look at the Jaggie edge

Adjust smooth to smoothen out the bumpy edge

How Global Refinements Work

Let’s look at Photoshop for a second, so I can show you what’s happening with the Global Refinement tools. Don’t follow these steps, but just observe for a second. (You can watch it on the video at the top).

Here is a rough edge, we are looking direct at the mask. (Photoshop layer Masks for beginners here)

If we choose Filter>Blur, we can soften the edge of the mask,

This is exactly what the feather slider does.

The edge is soft and removed the bumps and unevenness,  but we need to make it a sharp edge.

Choose Ctrl/Cmd+L for Levels. (we are adjusting the mask, but viewing the image, so you can see the result, don’t worry, you don’t have to do this).

As we pull the triangles together it sharpens the edge, This is the same as using the contrast slider in Select and Mask.

Before Select and Mask, we used to use blur and Levels all the time, because that way the only way to do it.

Back to Select and Mask

Add some feather to soften the edge and even it out

Add contrast to make the edge sharper.

Shift Edge

There is another setting that allows you to expand or shrink the edge. This lets use show more of the edge, or choke out the edge fringes.

Move it to the right to expand and widen the edge.

Move it to the left to contract the edge.

How Shift Edge works (demonstration, you don’t have to do this).

If we go back to that mask in Photoshop

Remember when we added a feather and then pulled the triangle together in Levels to sharpen that edge?

If we move all the triangles in levels to the right it contracts the edge

Move all the triangles to the left to expand the edge of the selection.

Shifting Edges in Select and Mask

Back to select and Mask

Be careful when shifting the edges in Select and Mask, because this affects the entire image.

Often its useful to Turn on decontaminate colors because this can remove the edge halos by itself.

Only after you apply decontaminate colors. move the Shift edge a very minimum amount.

This is the fastest and easiest way to fix the edges.

There are a number of ways to fix edges and I have made several tutorials here at PhotoshopCAFE. Here is another way to clean up the edges of selections in Photoshop 

Choose New Layer with Layer Mask on “output”

Click OK to apply the changes.

The layer open with a layer mask in Photoshop.

If you paint on the Layer mask with a black brush, you can remove areas of the cutout.

If you paint on the Layer mask with a white brush, you can add areas of the cutout.

This way you can use brushes to finish the cutout and get it absolutely prefect.

There are other tools and many other techniques to working with cut outs and edges in Photoshop. My course covers many of them, and there are lots of free tutorials here at the CAFE

I hope this 2-part tutorial has helped you understand the Select and Mask tool in Photoshop better.

Thanks

Colin

If you found this useful, please tell your friends about photoshopCAFE and follow me on social media for Photoshop tips and inspiration.

The post Select and Mask in Photoshop free masterclass Pt 2 fix Smooth edges appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

This tutorial focuses on the Tone adjustments in Lightroom and ACR. These are the most important settings to begin editing your images.

This simple tutorial shows you an effective way to prepare your photos for further enhancement. It gives you a solid base of quality image details. (In many cases this is all you will need).

This tutorial works with Lightroom Classic, Lightroom and Adobe Camera RAW

A quick tip to start.

If you are using Lightroom, drag the develop panel to the left to widern the panel and elongate the sliders. See the red )original length) thia gives u almost 2x the amount of control.

Recover details

Here is the original image showing a loss of detail in the bight areas in the sky and on the left of the image.

We will use the Tone panel and this is the order I use it.

First, we want to reveal as much detail in the highlights and shadows as we need.

Drag the highlight slider to the left to reveal details in the sky. (Dehaze also reveals the details, but it also increases contrast, so it shouldn’t be used yet.)

If you still need more details, (depends on the image) reduce the exposure slightly.

I like to slightly reduce the contrast slider to open up more detail (See this tutorial on Contrast to see why)

Lets reveal detail in the shadows (lower right of the image)

Slide the Shadow slider to the right.

Use the Shadow and the highlight sliders as recovery sliders. Always more the Shadows to the right

And always push the highlights to the left.

Note: The amount you move these will vary from image to image and from camera to camera. These are shot on a drone with low dynamic range files, so they are pushed more aggressively that I would need to move them on camera like the Sony A1 for example.

Now we have opened up the details in the image. Next we want to add some punch.

The Whites and Blacks are used to add the contrast back into the image with minimum loss of details.

Lets do the whites first.

Hold down the Alt/Option key as you move the whites. You will see clipping indications on the screen. This lets us know if we have gone too far and lost highlight details.

Move the whites to the right to clean up milky areas in the highlights. This image is already bright, so it doesn’t need much.

Move the blacks to the left to add punch to the shadows. (Hold down alt/Option to see clipping too).

At this point, you can go on and use other tools including curves and Presence. This tutorial is focusing on the tone adjustments and I hope this helps you get to a good start point in getting better edits!

Check out this companion tutorial on Contrast vs Whites/Blacks that fits right in with this tutorial.

Great to see you at the CAFE

Colin

The post Tone Panel, most important settings in Lightroom and Adobe Camera RAW appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

In this tutorial, we will look at how Object Selection differs from Select subject. Then we will do a comparison between the two tools and I’ll provide some tips and a workflow to get the best results. Check out the video to get more details.

How Object Finder and Select Subject differ

For either of the tools, you will want to choose the Object Selection Tool first.

At the top, choose the drop down menu and select Cloud. This will always give a better result than Device. (You can permanently change it in preferences).

Click on Select Subject and a Marching Ants selection will appear around the main subject(s).

In this case it selected the three woman.

Ctrl/Cmd+D to deselect.

Let’s try the Object finder. With the Object Selection tool still active, make sure Object Finder is on

As you roll lover selectable objects in the photo, they will appear highlighted.

To select them, click and the selection will be created.

The main difference from Select Subject, is the ability to select different objects individually and isolate them. In the past, the quality of the selection was inferior to the selection quality of the Select subject. As you will see, this is no longer the case.

Using Object Selection, manually

Another function of the Object selection, is the ability to tell Photoshop what objects you want to select, these can be large or tiny, simple or complex.

Turn off Object Finder and use rectangle mode.

Draw a box around the object to select.

The ai will make its best selection around the object.

Combination selections

Make a box around part of an object, the box doesn’t even have to be accurate, just good enough to tell Photoshop what you want to select.

The selection will be made.

To add to a selection, hold down the Shift key and make a box around another object

Both are selected.

What if we want to add the shape in between?

For odd shaped selections, choose the Lasso mode.

Hold down Shift and make a selection

Notice it added to the selection nicely. We need to remove the empty area inside the shape.

Hold down Alt/Option to remove from the selection.

Drag inside the shape to remove the center.

And the ai does it’s thing.

If I add a layer mask, you can see how the selection looks. Not bad, for nat making any modifications.

Select Subject vs Object Finder

Ok, the moment of truth. Let’s compare the quality of selections between the 2 ai powered out selection tools.

We will start with Select subject and a subject that has a lot of hair. Yes, it’s a simple background, but the point here is to compare the two tools and the quality of the edges, not compete in a difficult selection challenge.

Here is the selection. I won’t make any refinements or modifications in this test, just a single click only. At the end of the tutorial, I’ll show how to refine the edges.

Lets click the layer mask button to mask this Select subject.

Onto Object finder.

Make sure Object Finder is on.

Click to select

I added a mask to this too. and put the 2 different selections next to each other for you to look at. We have Object Finder on the left and Select Subject on the right.

We will look at different colored backgrounds. The first thing that struck me, is this tool is now usable, the selection isn’t bad at all. Its not perfect, but remember, we haven’t worked it yet and all selection tools, just give you a starting place.

closer up, you can see things like the eyelash.

Here it is on white

and on black, I notice the Object finder (on the left) seems to do a better job with the fine details on the hair.

Here is a different selection. Select subject is doing better with the smooth details on the back of the skater, however its missing part of the board (all of these are easy fixes).

Object Finder Special features

Lets look at some of the settings

If you click this icon, you can show all selectable objects at once.

Each of the highlighted areas can be clicked on to automatically load the selections.

Click the gear to see the settings (these are all covered in the video)

The main ones are the ability to change the way the overlay is displayed.

Refresh is useful when you are compositing. As you work on the image, Photoshop will constantly analyze and update the overlays. If you choose Manual Refresh, the analysis will stop. Click the rounded arrow to manually update (refresh) when you are ready.

Refine the selection

Whichever tool you use, you will still have to refine the selection for production-level selections. I’ll briefly show you the main steps here. I have many tutorials here at the CAFE that show how to refine the edges of selections and they are all still valid. The ai tools, add more tools to make quick selections, but they don’t replace the other tools, which in many cases, can still yield better results with a little more effort.

5 ways to fix selection edges in Photoshop

Make the selection with Object Finder (or any selection tool).

Click on Select and Mask

Now we enter the select and Mask workspace. (Maybe I should do a deeper tutorial on this tool and explain all the options sometime?)

The main settings are here.

First, move transparency to 100%, so you can clearly see what you are working on.

If you have hard edges that are a little uneven, try these settings.

Radius to 1px.

Tiny amount of feather and contrast. Only use smooth if there are objections jaggies, using smooth makes it almost impossible to get good hair edges, but you could work in 2 passes. Beyond the scope of this tutorial.

His jacket it looking really good, but the hair on his temples are semi-transparent.

grab the refine brush from the left panel.

paint over the hair edges

This is a great tool for hair, fur, smoke and glass.

Choose decontaminate colors to remove edge halos

The best way to output is New Layer with Layer mask.

And the Final Cut out. These are good tools to remove the background in a photo in Photoshop.

I hope you found this tutorial useful. Tune in for a new tutorial each week and browse the hundreds of tutorials here at the CAFE (at least bookmark, as PhotoshopCAFE will be a valuable resource for you, as it is for millions of other users.)

Thanks

Colin

Also follow me on Instagram, Tik Tik, Threads and Twitter.  for shorts and reels.

My new course on Generative Fill in Photoshop: https://photoshopcafe.com/shop/generative-fill-in-photoshop-introduction-course/

The post Object selection tool in Photoshop got an update. How to make quality ai selections appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

In this Photoshop tutorial, I will show you the newest features in Photoshop 2023 selections. We will also look at Object Selection in a bit more depth, revealing some of the hidden options that you will find useful. Make sure to watch the video because it contains a number of tips and details that aren’t in these written steps. Also check out my new feature overview for Photoshop 2023 and Lightroom 12 aka Lightroom Classic 2023.

Choose the object selection tool, it’s under the magic wand. (If you don’t see the object selections tool, make sure you aren’t using an old workspace)

When you roll over different parts of your image, you will see that object or parts of objects will appear highlighted.

Click to make a selection

Drag on any object in your image to select it. At the top there are 2 options, the marquee or lasso options.

The ai does the rest of the work in making a selection.

Choose Select and mask to refine the selection. The object selection tool is now available in Select and Mask.

Some newer option with Object Selections are the ability to select a sky with a single click.

As you roll over your image, you have the option to select the foreground, just click to select.

Here I switched out the foreground using the initial selection to show how good it is.  You can refine the selections of course, but with the updated algorithms its pretty good.

Working with Layered Images

Here is a composite with many layers.

The flower layer is currently active.

Its easy enough to select the flower because the pixels are on the current layer.

If you try to select other objects tha are on other layers, you will get an error message, because no pixels are selected.

Turn on the Stack icon in the options bar to look at the full composite.

Now you can easily select anything in the composite from any layer.

I hope you found these new additions to the Photoshop Object Selection tool useful. Watch the video for more of a walkthrough and more tips.

Thanks for checking it out

Colin

The post How to use Updated Object Selection in Photoshop 2023, AI selections. appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.