5 hidden Tips to make perfect Photoshop mask edges

Powerful TIPS for perfect masks and Edges in Photoshop. Colin Smith shows you how to clean up maks, edges and selection in Photoshop

00:00 Intro
00:16 Visualizing selections
01:04 Remove colored edges
01:34 Blending edges into background
03:55 Shifting the edge of a mask (choke mask)
05:29 Mask Cleaning Tip

#Photoshop #howto #masks #cutouts

[robertstonephoto]

Adding a border to a selection ... brilliant!

[PhaedrusD]

Nice Tips!
My fave trick for finessing the edges of masks is to use the Dodge/Burn and Blur tools on the mask. Zooming in so I can see the edges clearly I can quickly move around the image and work very quickly choking the mask here, expanding it there, softening it to accommodate a shorter depth of field, etc etc.

[johnreed]

This is GREAT! Super useful and much appreciated. More like this rather than new stuff in beta.

[TrevorDennis]

All good stuff Colin, although I have been using that sort of workflow for a good while. Layer masks are usually a good first step with complex selections, as you can then use multiple methods to clean up the mask and complete the selection. Nowadays that might start with Select Object or remove Background, and then go on to use Pen tool for the smooth hard edges — like the outline of a car, or brush in the mask using Shift to paint straight lines.

Quick Mask can be useful to reveal the selection, but has the big disadvantage of not showing areas less than 50% selected. Rather than paint out the extraneous areas with the brush, I like to quickly draw around them with the Lasso tool and hit Alt Backspace to fill that area with black or white, depending. The other trick is setting the brush mode to Overlay so it will only affect areas brighter than 50% grey when brushing with white, and below 50% grey when brushing with black. Another trick with fringes is to use a Hue/sat adjustment layer and sample the fringe colour. You can then desaturate the fringe and adjust brightness to match the adjacent pixels. Or you could just mask it out as you suggested. 😄

I like this sort of tip video as it deals with things you are likely to use every time you work with Photoshop. That cements the tips into memory on a 'Use it or lose it.' basis. The Photoshop Cafe video I give people links to on the Adobe forums the most, is using the new Gradient tool as a workaround for the now defunct Lighting effects. I bet there is not a week goes buy without at least one person asking about Lighting Effects on the Adobe forum and Reddit etc. That was a very cool tip, and I think it can give better results than the original Lighting Effects filter.

Keep them coming Colin, and tell your buddy Jesus Rameriz that we are missing him on YouTube. If I ever get to MAX again I'll try and say hello if I see you. It's a long way from NZ, and even with a TA gig it is expensive.

[Keith-nb]

Once again Colin, you have confirmed why I am subscribed to your channel. Clear & concise as always. Very informative - thank you!

[ehoffmann]

Thank you Colin. I always enjoy your videos and learn something that I didnt know. or forgot about. You are a great educator

[tonycook]

Another excellent tutorial Colin, thank you!

[trwhitford]

When painting black or white on the mask have the brush in overlay mode.

[dunnymonster]

Sometimes the layer mask is almost perfect but you still get edges that contain parts of the background. An easy fix is to add two blank layers above and turn them into clipping masks. Name one, lighter colour and put it in lighter colour blend mode, name the other, darker colour and put it in darker colour blend mode. Zoom into your selection edges and using the clone stamp tool just sample areas near the edges to then paint the fringed areas. Use either the lighter colour or darker colour layers depending on if you are trying to darken or lighten those fringed edges to match. Not only does this method match the colours but also clones the textures with it for a more realistic edge. Using darker/lighter blend modes protects the areas you want to keep. You can do this method using just normal blend mode on a single layer but I find seperating them into darker/lighter blend mode layers means I have more control without overspill. 😊

[ranakatan]

For the second tip you should try minimum effect instead of expanding the inverse selection. Much more control, a preview and less steps.

[westvinster]

So here are my cons, 👉( )👈. Did you read them? Exactly...because there was none 🤣. This video was professional and fool proof, simple as that. Thank you very much, 😇.

[ivan_]

You forgot about shifting the edge in Select & Mask window😉

[photonsonpixels]

Sensei Colin, great tutorial! Thank you.