Refine Edges (1)

In the earlier versions of Photoshop, it was quite a task to select details such as the hair of this young lady. In Photoshop CS5, it is a lot easier with the dialog “Refine Edge” for both selections and layer masks.
We will discuss layer masks later, first I want to talk about selections.
Besides, layer masks and selections basically have the same purpose. They are simply two different ways to add visual transparency to certain sections in a photo.

As an example, I have a layer with a photo of a young lady on a white background (1), I want it on another background with some other color (2).
What we need to do is, just select the girl and do away with the white background mask.
Problem is, or rather “was” the hair of the girl. To view the details of this selection in previous versions was an almost impossible task.
In Photoshop CS5, it is a lot easier.
I’ll show you how we do it.

The first thing we do is make a rough selection of the girl.
I used the tool “Quick Selection”, but with whatever tool you do, it does not matter.
If the layer with the girl is not selected, select it first, and then click the button “Refine Edge” in the options bar.

This opens the dialog “Refine Edge”.
Some of us who have worked in the earlier versions of Photoshop will undoubtedly see that this window is expanded a lot.
At the top we find the various display options.

Clicking the button opens a drop-down menu with seven possible displays. We had the first five in previous versions of Photoshop. The later two are new in Photoshop CS5.
I will go over all of them, but whichever view you choose, this does change the content of the picture. This is just to to make the editing of selection easy for you.
You can view these at any time.
The first display shows the selection as we are accustomed, with the moving dotted lines (1). They call it animated display.
The second view shows the selection as “Quick Mask”. More about masks in a later lesson.

The third display, displays the selection on a black background (3), the fourth display on a white background (4), and the fifth displays the selection again as a mask. So in black / white.

The sixth and seventh displays are new to Photoshop CS5.
The sixth, displays the picture as it would be masked (6), and the seventh display shows the layer without a mask (7).

Personally I prefer the sixth option. This gives me directly the result of the masked in the background.

Click on an empty space somewhere in the “Refine Edge” dialog, it will close the drop-down and displays the menu again.

We continue in the Next Lesson.

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