Page 34 - Adobe Photoshop CC 2020

5. With the marching ants active, choose Select>Modify>Feather.
Photoshop offers a number of options for modifying an existing
selection marquee.
• Select>Grow expands the selection to include all adjacent pixels
that fall within the tolerance defined for the Magic Wand tool.
• Select>Similar expands the selection to include all pixels
throughout the image that fall within the tolerance range, even if
they are not adjacent to the active selection.
• Select>Transform Selection shows bounding-box handles
around the selection marquee, which you can use to transform
the selection as you would transform layer content.

In the Select>Modify menu:
• Border creates a selection of a defined number of pixels around the edge of the
active marquee.
• Smooth helps to clean up stray pixels at the edge of a selection. Within
a defined radius from the selection edge, pixels with less than half of the Note:
surrounding pixels are excluded from the selection.
You could also create a
• Expand and Contract enlarge and shrink, respectively, a selection by a defined feathered selection by
number of pixels. typing in the Feather
• Feather creates a blended edge to the active selection area. field of the Options bar
before drawing the
6. In the resulting dialog box, type 100 in the Feather Radius field. Make selection marquee.
sure Apply Effect at Canvas Bounds is not checked, then click OK.
Feathering means to soften the edge of a selection so the image Keep in mind, however,
blends into the background instead of showing a sharp line that if you draw a feath-
around the edge. The Feather Radius defines the distance from ered selection (using the
solid to transparent. tool option setting), you
can’t undo the feather
If the Apply Effect... check box is active, the feathering will be applied at the top and without also undoing
right edges of the canvas, where you dragged past the image edge while making the
selection. You want these edges to remain hard, so the option should remain unchecked. the selection area.

7. Click the Edit in Quick Mask button at the bottom of the Tools panel to
toggle into Quick Mask mode.
Marching ants do not show
degrees of transparency. Quick
Mask mode creates a temporary
red overlay (called an Alpha
channel) that shows the feathered
selection. By default, the overlay
is semi-transparent, which allows
you to see the underlying image.

The semi-transparent
overlay shows the smooth
transition that was created
by feathering the selection.

Edit in Quick Mask
button

46 Project 1: Music CD Artwork