Skip to main content
M
Merlin3
Inspiring
January 3, 2026
Question

Same soft edge thickness whatever the brush diameter is changed to ?

  • January 3, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 292 views

Hi,

chapter 1 verse 1 of tracing around an object. Black for brush colour, Create the brush diameter and adjust the hardnesss slider until the soft edge matches that of the object. e.g. 7 pixels fade off, Q for quick mask and away you go. I trace within the object, so tracing along an aerial wire is a sane achievable task etc.

Start tracing then lessen the diameter when you come across a narrow item, e.g a ships tapering mast, or a side view propeller blade, or aerial post etc. 

FAIL FAIL FAIL.

Photoshop despite existing since version 3, has the brush softness change as well, so the propeller blade ends up with a trace far sharper than its soft edge has. e.g  3 pixels.

Thats the rule of tracing broken. what should be a constant softness of e.g. 7 pixels is 7 with 5 then 3 then 2 for items that are thin or taper.

There should be a setting called keep feather edge thickness, tick it then alter brush diameter, and I use [ and ] keys.

 

Is there such ?

As after 30 yrs of working with Photoshop, and seeing all sorts of gizmos and tricks added, this MOST BASIC AND FUNDAMENTAL NEED is still not there.

 

If anyone says alter the softness slider when altering the brush diameter, that means messing about counting the fade off of the adjustment and fiddling about until it gets the 7 pixels back, only to have to do it again when heading back down the mast or propeller tip, or persons finger, life is too short to keep having to adjust both sliders and doing this.

 

So where is the setting to achieve this, ?

 

Previous posts on this have vanished as the address says not found.

 

Cheers

Merlin

    2 replies

    ThioJoe
    Community Expert
    ThioJoeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 4, 2026

    I think the closest thing to what you're looking for, is instead of "baking in" the faded edge of the selection with the brush, make the selection with a hard brush, then apply the selection as a mask to the effect or layer.  If you double click on a mask to bring up the mask's properties panel, the "feather" slider lets you non-destructively adjust the softness of the mask after the fact using a pixel value.

     

    Going for a "hard" selection first also opens up other tools you can use like the pen tool for smaller objects, and you can still convert it to a mask and use the same feather trick.

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    D FosseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 4, 2026

    Yes, that's how I normally do it, and then the question is moot.

     

    Generally, feature requests for functionality that already exists in another form, usually don't get the highest priority. But I suppose it depends on the compexity of implementing it.

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    D FosseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 3, 2026

    Not entirely sure what you're saying - but yes, brush softness is relative to brush size, in other words the whole brush projection is enlarged and reduced as you change brush size. In yet other words, the parameter is "softness", not "feather radius".

     

    It hasn't bothered me much, but now that you mention it, keeping the feather radius constant could come in handy in many cases. I upvoted this.

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices