Sharp edges along the horns and hairy edges elsewhere.
Photoshop CS5 has made it easier to make image selections and masks, speeding up the extraction of subjects from backgrounds and the creation of realistic composites.
Enhanced intelligent selection technology offers better edge detection and faster, more accurate masking results of complex subjects such as hair. Automatic color decontamination helps eliminate background color around the edges of a selection, resulting in more seamless compositions when placing extracted subjects on new backgrounds.
New controls can be found in the Refine Edge dialog
The enhanced controls are found in the Refine Edge dialog box when a selection is made.
The Smart Radius setting uses adaptive selection-edge modification approach to produce different types of selection edges on different parts of the subject’s outline, depending on the type of edges — whether the portion of the edge is fuzzy or sharp. This is based on the traditional best practice of using different techniques for different types of edges along the outline of the subject — one method for fuzzy hair and another for the clear edge of a building.
Selection outline in black and white
Additional view modes provide new ways of previewing the quality of the selections.
The Refine Radius and Erase Refinements tools allows the initial selection to be refined — be it to add more of the subject or to remove more of the background along the selection edge.
My article in Digital Life on 2 June 2010 (Not a hair out of place) illustrated the use of the enhanced selection controls to make a hairy selection round a starry-eyed deer in Miyajima, Japan.
