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G
GButch
Inspiring
September 4, 2024
Question

Select and Mask Confusion

  • September 4, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 539 views

I am confused by the Adobe online tutorial for "Select and Mask".  I am familiar with masking and have often refined masks manually.  My version of Photoshp is up to date.  I am working on a Dell XPS 8910 running 64 bit Windows 10.  Lots of RAM and disk space.
I have opened the Select and Mask tutorial on the Adobe website and attempted to follow it carefully while working on an image of mine that has strands of hair I want to select.  My problem is illustrated in the attached jpeg.  My Select and Mask properties panel, shown on the right, differs from the one shown shown on the left in the tutorial.  Also, on my panel, "Real time refinement" seems to be grayed out.  I checked if there was an issue with my graphics card, but it appears to be fully compatible.  I'd appreciate some help.  Thank you.
George Butch
Plantation , FL

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2 replies

G
GButchAuthor
Inspiring
September 10, 2024

I am at wits end regarding Select and Mask.  Other than the ability to select the View Mode, absolutely nothing works.  I've even tried the universal Photoshopp problem fix of deleting my preferences file.  A jpeg of the top of my S & M properties panel is attached.  Note that "Real-time Refinement" is grayed out.  The one suggestion I was offered did not solve the problem. 

Myra Ferguson
Community Expert
Myra FergusonCommunity Expert
Community Expert
September 4, 2024

In your Properties panel in Select and Mask Mode, change the current selection under Refine Mode from Object Aware to Color Aware. When Color Aware is selected, you should get the Real-time Refinement option.

G
GButchAuthor
Inspiring
September 7, 2024

Thank you Myra, but something else is amiss.  The switch you suggested made no difference.  The Real-time Refinement option remains grayed out.  None of the controls seem to make any observable difference at all.  I remain concerned that the property panel shown in the Adobe tutorial differs from the one I see in my version of PS.  Is there some Windows vs. Mac issue perhaps?  A year or two ago I watched a Kelby tutorial on select and mask, and at that time mine behaved exactly as that tutorial showed. But S&M had changed since then. This has become an issue for me because I separate elements in my imagers into separate layers to be processed individually. 
And just a personal observation, but "Select Subject" seems less precise as I believe it was previously.  I'm doing a lot more mask tweaking manually.  Thank you.   

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