Page 61 - Adobe Photoshop 2022

14. If necessary, expand the Edge Detection and Global Refinements sections
of the Properties panel, then review those options.
• Radius is the number of pixels around the edge that are affected. Higher radius
values result in softer edges and lower values result in sharper edges.
• Smart Radius automatically adjusts the radius for hard and soft edges found in
the border region. You should turn off this option if your selection area has all hard
edges or all soft edges.
• Smooth reduces the number of points that make up your selection and, as
the name suggests, makes a smoother edge. You can set smoothness from 0 (very
detailed selection) to 100 (very smooth selection).
• Feather softens the selection edge, resulting in a transition that does not have
a hard edge (in other words, blends into the background). You can feather the
selection up to 250 pixels.
• Contrast is the degree of variation allowed in the selection edge. Higher
Contrast values (up to 100%) mean sharper selection edges.
• Shift Edge shrinks or grows the selection edge by the defined percentage (from
–100% to 100%).
• Invert reverses the mask; selected areas become unselected and vice versa.

15. Experiment with the adjustments until you’re satisfied with the selection edge.
We increased the Smooth value to 10 to reduce jagged effects at the selection edge.

16. Expand the Output Settings in the Properties panel and choose the Layer
Mask option in the Output To menu.

The Output options can be used to create a new layer or file (with or without a mask)
from the selection. (You might need to scroll in the panel to find the Output menu, or
you can collapse the Edge Detection and Global Refinements sections.)

The Decontaminate Colors can be checked to remove a certain percentage of color
from the edge of a selection.

17. Click OK to accept your refined selection. Choose View>Fit on Screen to
show the entire image.
When you pasted the
feathered selection from the
original Lightning.jpg file,
you pasted only the pixels
inside the selection area; The resulting
unselected pixels from the layer mask hides
original image are not a part areas that were
of the composite file. not selected.
Rather than actually
excluding or deleting pixels,
a layer mask hides unwanted Note:
pixels. The mask you just
created is a raster-based pixel A layer mask is basically
mask. Unselected (masked) an Alpha channel that
areas are hidden but not deleted, so you can later edit the mask to change the visible is connected to a specific
part of the image. This is a non-destructive way to hide certain elements of a layer layer.
without permanently deleting pixels. You can edit or disable the layer mask at any time.

Project 1: New Music Artwork 71