Quick Selection Refine Edge Problem

Using CC 2014.2.2, and the Quick Selection tool, when I go to Refine Edge the Refine Radius Tool/Erase Refinements Tool
is grayed out. When this is clicked, and the cursor moved to the selection, what shows is a slashed circle. (The universal
sign for "No").
I've tried various views, settings, and layer arrangements, and changed the bit from 16 to 32 to 8, and nothing seems to allow
those tools to be used. I've also reset the Quick Selection tool.
Screenshot of image, but the slashed circle will not stay in place for a screenshot:
Dropbox - 2015-03-12SS.jpg

You have View set to Marching Ants. I think every other option will allow the use of the brush.
A couple of tips:
Any amount of Smoothing will prevent Refine Edge of selecting individual strands of hair. Negative values of Shift edge will have the same effect. If you think about it — if a hair is two pixels wide, and you set Shift edge to -4 the hair has gone.
Try setting View to Black, uncheck Show Original, switching in and out of Show radius. This will show if your radius extends far enough, but equally important, shows if you have painted 'into' the image. This can cause the annoying softening of edges.
Don't use Decontaminate colours until you have the other settings working well. I don't think I have ever needed to use such a high setting for it.
One problem with having Remember settings checked, is that it can overwrite useful defaults. For instance, checking Decontaminate colors switches the output to New layer with layer mask, and that is really useful as it allows you to clean up the selection manually.
Refine Edge was a real game changer, and dramatically speeded up the selection process. Unfortunately, I don't think it was anything like as intuitive as Adobe would have us believe, and nor have any of the tutorials I've seen really and truly got a grip on it. The Martin Evening tutorial maybe comes close.

Similar Messages

Refine Edge Problem

After doing some google searches, I've decided to bring the question a new.
I am using Adobe CS5 on Windows Vista (32-bit).
My refine edge tool has stopped working properly. Rather than refining my edge selection, it sort of blends my selection into transparency, making the final product look extremely sloppy (the point to be made here is that the tool does not funciton as it does on tutorials and examples).
I have already tried:
1.) Setting up a new user account on my computer
2.) Resetting tool presets
3.) installing updates
The problem remains. Any wisdom on this issue?

Charles,
Let me first take the time to thank you. I very much appreciate your efforts to help me. At the very least, you're helping me to refine my issue.
I have another set of pics to show the problem better in light of your comments.
Starting picture (the stark black background seems like I should be able to get a decent selection):
First, a picture of the general selection made using quick select in refine edge (note no settings are applied at the moment):
Second, the same selection with radius set to 30.0 (smart radius applied):
Note already there are colors taken away from the original selection and an odd transparency going on with the edges (I know the "decontaminate color" is checked here, but that made no difference to the photo.
Here is the same screen zoomed in to show the problem more clearly:
The problem continues (and intensifies) when I attempt to apply the refine radius tool. Here is a close of the original with the radius at 30.0:
Here is after I applied the refine radius tool:
Not only does it not help, it makes the thing look worse.
Finally, here is the selection when I adjust shift edge and contrast:
I just seems to me like something is wrong with the program/tool. I'm going to connect with Adobe tomorrow and try to work through this issue. I hate not being able to get the results that I know are supposed to be acheivable with the program.

Quick Selection refine edges error message. Not enough ram??

I am on day 6 of the drial for CC. The quick selection tool worked great for about 3 days and then i started getting the 'not enough memory' error message while refining edges. I have cleared memory, done updates, adjusted preferences etc and although my sytem is running dramatically better i am still getting the error message! Can anyone help please?

i'd set paging to 2x installed RAM min and max and leave it at that.
ditto same physical drive info. if you can help it, windows swap and ps scratch should be on seperate drives.
as for the EMPTY drive, i don't think so. all you need is a large contiguous block of free space. i have a drive with over 100gig free, that i keep defragged so the free space is in one big block, i use that as my ps scratch drive. the problems happen when you start fragmenting your scratch file, so that the disk heads have to jump around the drive to read and write - and i think that's what FA's advice is trying to tell you to avoid at all costs.

Refine Edge Problem - Tool Won't Work

Hi there,
I have a problem with the Refine Edge tool in Photoshop CS3.
I make my selection, press "Refine Edge", make the changes I require and the preview shows everything is fine.
I click "OK", the Refine Edge box disappears and my changes do as well! The only difference is that my original selection area has decreased (I'm no pro, but it looks as though the edges have been feathered.)
I have no other layers except for the duplicated background.
I have tried older Photoshop files and this tool does not work for them either - even though I have used Refine Edge at work successfully before, but this was on another computer.
Perhaps I have accidentally adjusted a setting?
Please help, this is driving me crazy!
Thanks!

Are you viewing at 100%? If not the change may not show. Otherwise reset the Refine Edge dialog to default and try again.
If this doesn't fix it try resetting your preferences as described in the FAQ.
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.ef4a07f/1
You either have to physically delete (or rename) the preference files or, if using the Alt, Ctrl, and Shift method, be sure that you get a confirmation dialog.
This resets all settings in Photoshop to factory defaults.
A complete uninstall/re-install will not affect the preferences and a corrupt file there may be causing the problem.

CS4 refine edge problem

So I pick my layer, using the wand, everything is all good, the refine edge works It shows the preview and all, and then when I click "OK" It does not apply the changes I checked around the forum this seems to be a problem alot of people had in CS3 but I'm in CS4.

FunkyImageguy wrote:
I'm just trying to refine the edges of my layer that I'm using, It looks perfect in the preview but when I click "ok" it does'nt apply the changes.
Not all changes you make in the selection are visible in the marching ants outline.
It's no good saying "I'm just trying to refine the edges" – that's obvious.
How was the selection made and what numbers did you have in the boxes?

PS Touch for Android phone refine edge problems

Hi All
Please help. Just bought PS Touch app for an android phone and I cant get the refine edge tool to work. I draw around the object I wany to keep then draw around the around the inner edge and press remove then go to refine edhe tool but it doesnt seem to work. The only reason I bought the app is because I want to select images and remove the background so thta I can 'paste' them onto another photo etc...Please help as Im getting frustrated. Is it a bug?
Adam

Hi,
I draw around the object I wany to keep then draw around the around the inner edge and press remove then go to refine edhe tool but it doesnt seem to work.
Are you trying to say that you use Scribble Select for the selection?
When you press Remove - have you painted the part that you do not want to be included?
If not you do not have a selection and will not be able to use Refine Edge.
Please look at
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adobe-evangelists-russell-brown/scribble-tool/ in order to see how to use the tool
thanks,
Ignacio
Message was edited by: ibarrien

Refine Edge - Feather gives stepped and ragged result

Not sure if this has been answered, I can't find anything similar here.
CS2 used to have Select -> Feather and it worked great!
Now, in CS3 we have Select -> Refine Edge and it goes wrong almost as soon as I start moving the Feather slider. When I hit 250 (max) the resulting "Feather" has several extremely uneven and very visible steps in the blend. I usually have to go back and blur the result several times until the steps go away.
Anyone else have this problem? Is there a better way to smooth selections before deleting, filling, coloring, blending, etc
Thanks,
Pete

Most images are 8 bit. Scanner is 24 bit. The banding I mention happens with both.
Generally, I select a small area. For instance, my scanner leaves a slightly darker 1/4" strip at the left edge. A slight light fall off in that 1/4" strip down the left side.
I used to make a very narrow selection from top to bottom, at the farthest left I could go. Maybe 1/16" wide, and then feather it greatly. Then I can adjust it lighter and it used to work perfectly. Now with feather edge, I get huge banding.
Also, when feathering a layer, such as a black vignette around the edge of a photo, pushing the feather edge too high up causes extremely noticeable banding.
Why does the feather edge slider go up to 250 if banding is noticeable at 30 or 50?
I need this feature to blend layers and transitions for web design all the time and it always causes huge problems with banding.
Select -> Modify -> feather radius is very difficult to preview results. The Refine Edge preview is great, but the banding is not so great! It happens every time I use it.
To my way of thinking, selection edge feathering is selection edge feathering, no?
Thanks

Where do I find the Refine Edge Command for Windows 11 elements?

Where do I find the Refine Edge command for Windows PhotoShop Elements 11

Usually if you have one of the selection tools selected and an active selection, you should see Refine Edge in the tool options at the bottom of the pse 11 editor window.
Selection tool be something like the Rectangular Marquee Tool, Quick Selection Tool, or Lasso Tool
You can also go to Select>Refine Edge if you have an active selection or layer mask targeted

Refine Edge Tool Guidelines?

I made an initial selection of a person and selected Refine Edge. I simply want to take the person from his current location and place him somewhere else.
1. Are there any general guidelines for how much feather to add?
2. What about for Radius?
3. And Smooth?
I'm playing with the sliders, though I'm wondering if there is a range that I should try staying within for best results?
Thanks!

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-photoshop-cs6/selecting-soft-edge-objects-with-refine-edge /
and many many other videos on the net

Using Refine edge with Quick Selection......

I think I'm doing something wrong, because I can do a quick selection, but when I hit the "Refine Edge" button and make a change to the selection, my change doesn't "take"...
I have an image, one layer (background), absolutely normal, boring image (for example, a white swan sitting in the blue water). I go in with Quick Select and select PART OF
the swan. I have areas that aren't selected, and areas that are selected and shouldn't be. So, I need to refine my selection. I subtract and add bits of selection with the
Quick Select tool, but leave a big piece of the swan's body NOT selected, and a bit of water SELECTED. So, I need to go in with a tool and refine the edge of my selection...
SO, I hit "Refine Edge" from the tool bar and select "Overlay" for my view mode. I can now see what's selected, and know what I'd like to change. And, I have a red overlay
so I have a visual guide to changing things....
Go to the "Refine Radius Tool" and paint over an area I want ADDED to my selection (a piece of swan immediately adjacent to my original selection)... It runs red, like I'd expect.
I release the mouse and a second later, the red goes away, but the selection has NOT been changed. I've tried this directly from the Quick Select tool. I've double-clicked the
background layer and changed it so it's not background any more - made no difference. I've created a layer mask on the no-longer background layer (the mask contains my
Quick Selection just fine). I've then used the Mask panel to specify "Mask Edge" and again tried the "Refine Radius Tool" to add an area to my selection. Again, it turns red
while selecting, then stops being red when I let go, and the area I selected is NOT added to the selection...
I watched a presentation by a Photoshop person who DEMONSTRATED exactly what I'm doing, and it worked. I looked at Martin Evening's CS5 book, and as near as I can tell,
I did exactly what he described... He got a selection, added to the selection, and it worked fine...
I figure I've got something configured wrong, or something else goofed up. What am I missing here?

It's not my intention (intent?) to beat up on the "Refine Edge". I figured when I couldn't get the same pristine results as all the demos that I was doing something wrong, and kept watching more people doing this 'cause I figured I was doing something dumb...
Mostly, I've been trying this on different images over the last couple weeks just to see if I could figure out how to get it to work.
From the responses in here I suspect I'm doing it correctly, but the images I'm trying it on just don't lend themselves to perfect edges without some additional work..... The Quick Select and a bit of edge cleanup is still faster than the "good old days", so its definitely a step forward.
As far as the swans, yes, no matter what I did, I was getting a lot of extraneous selections and wonky edges and stuff. One of these days I'll try pulling an eagle or a great egret out of a clear sky and see how that goes. I suspect it'll work a lot better...
I only fiddled with the rodeo image 'cause I figured it was "like" hair. But my background is pretty busy. With a little additional work I DID get a very, very good selection, and was able to soften the background, and do a gradient so the ground under the horse is sharp, gradually blurring as it moves to the grandstands...
Thanks for all the replies...

Problems with refine edge in CS5-no longer working properly?!

Hi all, just wondered if anyone has experienced this bizarre problem and if so how they went about fixing it or changin the settings! (i may have done something to photoshop for it not to work properly!!!)
Basically, i have got CS5 and was very excited to find the refine edge tool.... made cutting out people real easy and loved it.... however, for some reason the refine edge is not working anymore. Everytime i try to refine the edge using the refine edge tool it isnt selecting any fine details of the cut. It seems to be erasing the image with a low opacity making the selection very blurred?!
Hopefully you can see from the very quickly put together example that the refine edge tool is taking pixels out if her nose, chin, jumper neck and jumper! Any one know how to prevent this from happening?
Thanks! Matt

I am having the same problem with the refine edge tool. It seems to work the exact opposite of what I was expecting.
The above two images are before and after using the tool to refine the edge. As you can see from the picture without the mask view, the selection actually got smaller after I tried to add to it. When I use the other tool to erase an edge, as soon as I release the mouse button, the portion I tried to remove reappears as it was before. This has never worked properly for me. Also, I have tried outputting in several different ways.
As for the questions posed: The app and OS are up to date. I am the only user on my computer, so I'm not sure what using another user would accomplish. I will mention that I'm using Windows 7, not Mac. I'm really hoping there is a setting I have wrong somewhere.

The refine edge tool is making the edge selections transparent

I am trying to remove a figure from a photo. I am selecting the image with the quick select tool and when I click on the refine edge button and try to paint in the areas needed with the refine edge tool, they turn transparent. WTF??
Any help? Any ideas?

Thank you Trevor and Noel For your quick responses.
@Trevor: I made sure that my brush was set to and not minus. Maybe I have another setting incorrectly set?? Here are pics of my problem.
@Noel: Thank you for the video, I havent watched it yet, but 'having it erase things that are already there' is kinda whats happening to my image, even though my brush isnt set to minus. I will look at the video and also will post pics of my issue in case anyone else is having this problem as well:
Here is my quick selection:
Here is what happens when I use the refine edge tool. It turns my "Areas of Transition" white:
Then my new layer looks like this:
Maybe I have a setting set wrong?? I will look at the video Noell and post any findings, thx again guys

Quick mask in refine edge- Adobe photoshop elements 8

I installed elements 8 on two machines. When I make a selection on one machine and go to refine edge quick mask the unselected area is mask off. On the other machine the selected area is masked - Which is wrong. I reloaded the program onto the machine and the same thing happened. How do I get the inverse area masked.

Some how my
default file got change and by reinstalling the soft ware it retained its settings.
By holding control shift Alt at start up gave me the option of getting rid of my settings folder. Works fine now.

Refine edge tool undoing my selections.

I used the quick select tool and then went into refine edge mask screen. When I use the brush to add or remove selection, it undoes my selection as soon as I release the mouse. Why!?

I tried that among other things.
Finally, we did a complete uninstall of PS -- once with keeping preferences (this didn't work)
and once wilth deleting all preferences (this seem to work)
Note: I do recommend saving all of your Presets before doing this.
Go to Edit > Preset Manager.
Select Preset Type from drop down...
• Brushes
• Swatches
• Gradients
• etc.
Select all by click Cmd + A (Mac) or Ctrl+A (PC)
Then click Save Set...
Save to Desktop or a Folder where you can upload later.
But thanks for your help!

Refine Edge tool problem

I'm following a tutorial from the CS6 Photoshop essential skills CD using the supplied images. When I am using the refine edge tool and going over the areas around the hair of my subject, my selections appear as they do in the tutorial but as soon as I let go of my mouse the selection disappears and no hair strands appear. If I zoom right in, I can sometimes see some of the strands but its as if the opacity on the selection has been decreased and the image is faded. Then, if I zoom in and out my selections appear then disappear. It definitely seems as if its a bug or something not right.

Are you viewing at 100%? If not the change may not show. Otherwise reset the Refine Edge dialog to default and try again.
If this doesn't fix it try resetting your preferences as described in the FAQ.
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.ef4a07f/1
You either have to physically delete (or rename) the preference files or, if using the Alt, Ctrl, and Shift method, be sure that you get a confirmation dialog.
This resets all settings in Photoshop to factory defaults.
A complete uninstall/re-install will not affect the preferences and a corrupt file there may be causing the problem.

Quick Selection Refine Edge Problem

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