Refine Edge

Photopedia

31 July 2009 11:32

Refine Edge can be found in Photoshop CS3 and CS4 and provides a sophisticated way of improving the quality of selection edges. It also allows you to view a selection against different backgrounds to make the adjustments easier to see.

Five sliders control inside Refine Edge

Radius Slider: Increase the Radius to create a more exact selection boundary in areas with soft transitions or fine detail, such as short hair or fur, or blurred boundaries.

Contrast Slider: This sharpens selection edges and removes any fuzzy artefacts. Increasing the contrast can remove excessive noise that may have been caused by a high Radius setting.

Smooth Slider: Reduces irregular areas in the selection boundary, creating smoother outlines.

Feather Slider: Creates a soft-edged transition between the selection and its surrounding pixels. Enter a value or move the slider to define the width of the feathered edge from 0–250 pixels.

Contract/Expand Slider: Use to shrink or enlarge a selection boundary. Move the slider from 0 to 100% to expand or 0 to -100% to contract. This can be useful for making subtle adjustments to soft-edged selections. Shrinking the selection can help remove unwanted background colours from selection edges.