Page 52 - CC 2019 WD Look Inside

7. 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
surrounding pixels are excluded from the selection.
• Expand and Contract enlarge and shrink, respectively, a selection by a defined
number of pixels.
• Feather creates a blended edge to the active selection area.
Note:
8. In the resulting dialog box, type 35 in the Feather Radius field. Click OK You could also create a
to return to the image window.
feathered selection by
Feathering means to soften the edge of a selection so the image typing in the Feather
blends into the background, instead of showing a sharp line field of the Options bar
around the edge. The Feather Radius defines the distance from solid to transparent. before drawing the
In the image window, there’s no apparent difference in the selection because the selection marquee.
marching ants can’t show shades of a selection.
Keep in mind, however,
9. Click the Edit in Quick Mask button at the bottom of the Tools panel to that if you draw a feath-
toggle into Quick Mask mode.
ered selection (using the
This mode creates a temporary red overlay (called an Alpha channel) that shows the tool option setting), you
feathered selection. By default, the overlay is semi-transparent, which allows you to see can’t undo the feather
the underlying image. without also undoing
the selection area.

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

Edit in Quick Mask
button

10. Click the Edit in Standard Mode button at the bottom of the Tools panel
to toggle off the Quick Mask.
When Quick Mask mode is active, the Edit in Quick Mask mode toggles to become
the Edit in Standard Mode button.

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