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R
r_tist
Inspiring
January 13, 2020
Question

magic wand selection and touch ups...

  • January 13, 2020
  • 1 reply
  • 2087 views

Hi,

 

To save time creating a custom clipping path to remove a background of an object, it is sometimes quicker to use the magic wand (if it works out). However, if it does work out, it tends to leave a pixel variation in color along the edges of the clipped object. This means using eraser tool to re-draw along all of those edges to clean it up & make the edges more natural.

Surely, there is a short-cut or better method to further clean up the edges. Some sort of pixel blend?

Please let me know. Thank you.

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Silkrooster
Silkrooster
Legend
January 13, 2020

How do you plan on using the image? Some older programs did require a clipping path, but newer programs can use a transparent background or a mask to hide the unneeded portion of the image.

If it needs to be a clean edge the the pen tool would be the best option. 

However if you already used the magic wand tool then you can can use any of the brush tools including some filters to clean up the selection. Once satisfied it is up to you if you want transparency or a mask. 
Deleting the unneeded portion normally is a destructive process, whereas a mask is nondestructive. The former can be difficult to edit whereas the latter can be edited at any time as long as it was saved in a format that supports masks.

    R
    r_tistAuthor
    Inspiring
    January 13, 2020

    Yes, I use the pen tool especially if the background is 'busy'. I was just hoping there was a better option to smooth out the edges and blend them better. Anti-aliasing? Otherwise, if I use the magic wand, I wind up having to go by hand and manually brush all the edges to clean them up. Very tedious. - Magic wand makes them appear a bit jagged and often includes a pixeled edge from the background, so I wind up with, say, a slight white edge around my image.

    Conrad_C
    Community Expert
    Conrad_CCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 13, 2020

    One way to soften an active selection is to choose Select > Feather and increase the value slightly to fuzz the edge a little. Or, after creating the selection and converting it to a mask, you can edit the mask (for example, in the Properties panel for a selected mask, increase the value for the Feather slider).

     

    But in general, the Magic Wand, Pen tool, Feather command, and similar tools and methods aren’t the most current. If you’re using any of the recent versions of Photoshop, especially Photoshop 2020, you should take advantage of the newer, faster tools and workflows that have been added, such as:

    1. First try using the Select > Subject command or button, the Object Selection tool, or the Quick Selection tool. If these produce a useful initial selection, it will automatically follow very complicated edges in almost no time. Don’t worry if they aren’t perfect because…
    2. With the initial selection active, choose Select > Select and Mask, or click the Select and Mask button. The Select and Mask task space contains many options for fine-tuning the edge of your selection, including the Refine Edge brush (shown in the middle of the demo below), and various sliders for softening and shifting the selection edge.

     

     

    Most of what you see me do is in the Select and Mask task space, especially the cleanup of the transitional edge pixels. You might not think the results are 100% perfect, but you can use the same tools to do better; I only made this quick demo to give you an idea of what’s possible. For details on how to use all of those options (Select Subject, Object Selection, Select and Mask), there are many demo videos on sites such as YouTube and LinkedIn Learning.

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