- 1. Take Care When Working on a White Background
- 2. Use Your Quick Select Tool Intelligently
- 3. Refine Edge to Finish Off a Selection
- 4. White May Not Necessarily Be White in High Key
- 5. Reuse Adjustment Layer Masks
- 6. Add Some Detail to Your RAW file
- 7. Add Some Texture to Clothing
- 8. Dodge and Burn on a Grey Layer
- 9. Soften Up Skin with Pore Detail
- 10. Add a Little Bit of Vibrance to Your Colors
- Final Thoughts
3. Refine Edge to Finish Off a Selection
If the Quick Mask tool doesn’t give you the level of detail that you need to make changes, the Refine Edge tool will help you set your selection even further. Once you have your background selected, press Command-Option-I (PC: Control-Alt-I) to invert the selection then choose Select > Refine Edge. This will bring you into the Refine Edge window where you can clean up the selection. Clicking on the Refine Edge check box can greatly improve the selection that you are working with (see Figure 5).
Once you’ve clicked on this, you can paint around the edges of the pictures to get a more accurate selection, or if you have forgotten a portion of your image in the selection. If you find that you have taken too much from the selection you can click on the Option (PC: Alt) key and paint that area back out. Once all of this is complete, you can click on the OK button, and your new selection will appear. Press Command-Option-I (PC: Control-Alt-I) again and your background is completely selected.