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I have an easy subject to mask out against a background. I used select and mask, select subject on the cloud setting.
I thought it did a great job until I realised. As I used a very shallow lens, maybe 1.4 aperture, the arm of my subject is blurry compared to the face and right arm. When I make alterations to background colour and brightness it brings out this noticeable dirty line which blatantly reveals my mask.
I can't make changes to smoothness or feathering to one portion of the mask in the select and mask window. Using a brush to manually alter the mask is too painstaking and brute force. How can I correct my mask either by feathering or other means so that it's perfect and I can alter my background?
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This is why an automatic algorithm can never replace a real human.
This isn't difficult, Photoshop has all the tools you need to do it. But you have to put in the work and use your eyes. Making appropriately blurred areas in a mask is straightforward with soft brushes.
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Not sure what you want to ask, but remember that you can use various options from the menu to modify the mask, such as filters and destructive adjustments like Levels and Curves.
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You may have an compounding effect that is making things worse... Try creating a group with a single layer mask for the subject and remove the multiple layer masks for the various adjustments and move them into the masked group.
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'Using a brush to manually alter the mask is too painstaking...'
If you want a professional result, then it is very rare that a mask is a one click process. Whether it starts with a channel mask, select subject or any other technique, a good mask requires work. That can be manual brushing or combining the output from various 'one click' masks. For example brushing with black/white and the brush blending mode set to overlay is a good way to sharpen up selected areas, conversely, the blur tool can be used to soften the mask in specific areas.
When working on the mask, continuously switch the view so you can see the impact against the new background (or in your case adjustment layers). That way you can focus on the areas where the mask is unacceptable without spending hours on areas which are not really visible anywhere else but the mask itself.
Dave