Page 34 - Adobe Photoshop 2021

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

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