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.

Similar Messages

Photoshop Refine Edge Tool questions

I made a Quick Selection of a person and am using the Refine Edge tool with the goal of extracting the person from the image so I can place her somewhere else.
I set the Smart Radius box, and Radius to about 2, smoothness to about 9, and then I take the Refine Radius tool. I start brushing around the edges of the hair to add missing strands to the selection.
1.) When brushing around the head, should the + that is in the middle of the brush be brushing on the very edge of the hair? Should it be touching both the edge of the hair and the background? How does it work best?
2.) Do you only want to use the Refine Radius tool over areas of hair? What else does it work well with?
Thanks.

Quick Select and Refine Edge are one the biggest game changers in recent Photoshop history IMHO. They make it so quick and easy to make complex selections, anyone can start making amazing composites, but Refine Edge just isn't as intuitive a tool to use as some of the tutorials make it out to be. Not even close, and I am not surprised that people have problems with it. Next time you Google up a tutorial ob Refine Edge, take into account the clean white background they are starting with, and then go find a tutorial that uses a busy background.
Hair is fine. You can't do fine with lots of smoothing and feathering. Smoothing is going to tame jagged edges, and feathering is going to make the edges soft. Hair won't survive that. If you have a busy background, then there's a good chance you are not going to get a good selection. That's why the Martin Evening tutorial I recommended is so good, because it is a lot truer to real life than most, and it lets you fine tune the selection to wherever you are going to composite it onto.

The refine edge tool is NOT working!!

Hi everyone. I'm trying to get the refine edge tool to work. I selected my image using the quick select tool, then I click refine edge. When I move my cursor around the edge pressing the mouse button to make my adjustments the image is being erased instead of picking up the hairs. I do not have my refine edge brush set to "-", it is set to "+". I dont have anything else in the refine edge menus selected, it is at default. I even tried to enable Smart Edge and other features in the refine edge menu, but it still doesnt pick up my hairs instead it removes my "line"....very aggravating. I've used this tool before and I never had a problem....Please help with any info or advice! I've searched the entire internet and cannot find anything that resolves this issue...thx

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

Refine edge tool is not working :(

I've been trying to select some fine hairs with the Refine Edge tool, but it always ends up looking terrible. This image is my from my most recent struggle. I shot on a gray muslin backdrop and either a ton of gray bleeds through or almost no hair is selected. I've tried viewing tutorials online, used the exact same settings shown in those tutorials, and my images still look messed up. It doesn't matter what settings I use either, nothing looks natural. I seem to have the biggest problem with lighter hair, but darker colors don't look great either.
Does anyone have any idea why this is happening or how to fix it? I can't give an image to a client looking like this, but I can't really reshoot it either if the results are just going to be the same.

I've tried viewing tutorials online, used the exact same settings shown in those tutorials, and my images still look messed up.
Did the images used in those tutorials feature backgrounds that were similarly structured and bright (in relation to the foreground) as yours?

Feathering and Refine Edge Tool will not work.

I am working correctly and selecting pixels correctly, but when I try to feather or use the refine edge tool, none of the changes are saved. For $40. Adobe thinks that they can solve this problem, but after paying $2500. for the CS4 Master Suites, I think this is excessive. Is there ANYBODY out there who knows how they're going to magically obviate these issues remotely? Any clues?

I think you may still not grasp what a Selection does – but I could be wrong.
You can feather a Selection, but unless you base some operation on that Selection it has no bearing on the pixels in an image.
A Layer Mask on the other hand can be filtered or edited in the Masks Panel or …

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

CS5 Refine Edge Tool

I'm experiencing a problem with the refine edge tool in CS5. For no obvious reason I am now getting an error message stating "Could not complete the Refine Edge command because of a programme error". this appears after I have adjusted the refine edge settings and clicked ok. The process was working fine until a copule of days ago. I wonder if anyone else has experienced this problem and can offer a solution. I've already downloaded the most recent updates. My OS is Windows XP.
BriRonS

Try resetting the photoshop preferences and see if that helps:
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/375776?tstart=0
MTSTUNER

Refine edge tool not working properly?

It worked for a couple of days but haven't been able to get it to work right again. I've wasted a lot of time on this problem. It doesn't find the edges correctly and make the areas where I used the tool lighter. I've tried resetting the preferences and it made no difference. I'm thinking of reinstalling the software but not sure how to do it.

Precisely saying refine edge tool does not find edges . It is just used to refine the current selection. How are finding it unuseful. Can you plz provide more info.

My "refine edge" tool is broken. Help!!!

I need a hand. I made a selection, clicked on "refine edge", then clicked on the refine edge tool. But when I bring it over the image, it's the circle with the line through it instead of the tool. It's driving me nuts that it won't work. It's my favorite tool. any ideas?

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 Not Highlighted to Open - CS6

Hi Everyone,
I have been using CS6 on a mac OSX retina without any issues until today, the "Refine Edge Tool Box" isn't highlighted anymore to open? is there some simple answer to this to reactivate it to open as it should? any helpful info would be appreciated - Thanks

OK, I rebooted the mac and whatever caused the glitch seems to have disappeared

Refine edge tool (CS5) producing bad quality selections?

I am having troubles where whenever I use the refine edge tool, the selection it produces is horrible quality. What's weird is on my old computer, running the same software and using the same images, I could get much better results. I was runnign Vista on a laptop and now I'm running Windows 7 on a desktop, so It's confusing that I am getting bad quality selections with a much better computer adn the saem images in the same program Suite.
anyone know what's up?

Looking at the screenshot I assume you mean the artifiacts/blockiness? Have you checked disabling OpenGL to see if that's the culprit? From the help file:
1. Turn off OpenGL.
Choose Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Photoshop > Preferences (Mac OS).
In the Performance panel, deselect Enable OpenGL Drawing. Click OK.
Restart Photoshop, and perform the same function.

Refine edge tool issues

Hello, my refine edge tool isn't working for me properly. When I select the radius brush, smart checked or unchecked, it turns my selection gray instead of pulling detail and removing background. It does this no matter the size of the radius brush and I really need to get these images done asap. I'm new to photoshop and major in LR. Any quick advice would be greatly appreciated!

I'm struggling to think of a set of circumstances that would cause that. Maybe if you had an underlying layer filled with grey, and a very high feather value in Refine Edge...
It would be helpful if you were to upload a screen grab of your image an workspace showing the Layers panel. Best to open your History panel as well.
But probably a good idea to try resetting Preferences before getting too involved with other stuff
Reset Preferences
Windows — Hold down Shift Ctrl Alt immediately after starting Photoshop
Mac — Hold down Shift Cmd Opt immediately after starting Photoshop

How to get the best results using the refine edge tool?

how to use the sliders in the refine edge tool? how do you get the best results using the fine edge tool?

You should ask in the forum for the (un-named) program you are using
The Cloud forum is not about using individual programs
The Cloud forum is about the Cloud as a delivery & install process
If you will start at the Forums Index https://forums.adobe.com/welcome
You will be able to select a forum for the specific Adobe product(s) you use
Click the "down arrow" symbol on the right (where it says All communities) to open the drop down list and scroll

Getting poor results with Refine Edge tool

Not sure if anyone else has run into this issue. But after following numerous tutorials on lynda.com as well as tv.adobe.com and youtube, I just can't get good selection results using the Refine Edge tool in Photoshop CC and I'm convinced it's something I'm doing wrong, but I have no idea what.
After downloading this Wikipedia image of Bismarck for a history documentary, I tried isolating the figure from the background using Refine Edge and keep getting poor results. Maybe it's my settings, I'm just not sure. But after painting over my edges, I end up with terrible results. Unfortunately, I'm getting poor results with other images as well. Can anyone venture to guess what I might be doing wrong? Thanks very much in advance.

Hi ninose11,
For this type of project and idea, I would recommend trying some of the magnetic lasso tool. The tool is located as the third tool in the toolbar (you should see a lasso or rope looking icon), hold down the icon and it should expand - then select the magnetic lasso tool. The magnetic lasso tool will allow you to scroll over the edge of his profile and it will automatically detect the outline edges. The slower you roll-over the shape the higher the accuracy will be. If the magnet is not detecting a particular edge or sharp corner (for example, the ear) you can manually drop points by simply right-clicking at any point during the selection. If the edge is too sharp, you can also create a light feather which will blend the edge softly (this should be located at the top).
If this is unsuccessful still, you can try selecting by color, using the Magnetic Wand Tool (forth icon in the toolbar, again hold down for all options). Once you are using the magnetic wand tool, you should be able to select all the black areas of the background to delete. You can increase or decrease the tolerance to change the sensitivity of the selection.
Hope this helps!

Using refine edge tool

Followed YouTube videos etc. but I find hair selection virtually impossible. Initially put it down to my skills. But now tried on my friends machine. With great success. Even the defringe tool works beautifully on his machine but does nothing on mine. I am using a 27 in mac with a graphics tablet. Tried different brush selections in case it has something to do with the table pressures etc but no help. Any thoughts it has been suggested I reinstall but such a hassle to save and reload actions etc. when I am not sure this will help. Also often in both CS6 and bridge access to tool bars is lost my mouse will move around the screen but disappears when I try to get onto a tool selection. Please help!

Thank you so much for your response. To try and be more clear regarding the refine edge tool use. When I work on my friends MacBook. Hair selection is workable using the less is more recommendation I am able to bring hair detail into my selection with relative ease. Processed many images now and getting well practiced and matching the composites for a final image. It's the fact that everting works so well on his machine. Then on my mac the selection process just does not work anywhere nearly as well. When you get to the point of using the defringe option on his the detail is further enhanced but on mine nothing happens. There is something different going on but I have no idea what or why. When doing composites we work with either a grey or white background this helps to make selections effectively. But just this one issue.

Refine Edge tool problem

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