Trimming around cats' whiskers in Photoshop

[Swandive stream]

When I'm trying to trim around a picture of a cat for compositing I have trouble with the fur and particularly whiskers. Usually I'm working with images with less than ideal backgrounds (complex, cluttered). With manual soft-edge trimming I can remove most of the background around them but I'm still left with a 'halo'

Above: Current composite (hat added, removed original background). Right: Close-up, whiskers with remaining dark edges

[JJMack]

Look for some tutorials on masking that use the quick selection tool and refine mask or use select and mask.  It requires some knowledge and practice

[Trevor.Dennis]

Mask them out and paint them back in

Fully hard brush with size and opacity set to Fade (value 400 for your screen shot)

[Stephen Marsh]

I agree with Trevor’s suggestion for the whiskers.

For the fur, you may find a custom brush to be better (or even the smudge tool with a hard/small pixel brush to tease out the fur):

Google “Nagel Fur Brush” or similar.