Refine Edge vs Refine Mask

Good day people
What would you guys say is the relationship between the Refine Edge Dialog box and the Refine Mask dialog box? I'm busy with Advanced Photoshop and this is one of the short questions I have to answer. The only answer my textbook gives me is that the Refine Mask dialog box has the same options as the Refine Edge Dialog box.
Could anyone give me an answer for 3 marks, please?
Monya

Wouldn't it be best to go find the two dialogs, experiment with them, and get to know what they do?
-Noel

Similar Messages

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.

How does Refine Edge work?

Hi,
I have been strugling with Refine Edge/Refine Mask. I can't understand what it is doing so it is difficult to me to make it work.
I would like to know HOW you tell this command which colors to keep and which to remove. I have an image taken with a white background and trying to extract it to place in a dark background makes tons of white "spilling" to appear all around the edges, especially horrible where hair is present.
I believe that, according to how my brain works, if I could understand how Refine Edge works then I would be able to get better results.
Thanks,
Juan
P.S: I have seen several videos on this topic but they are desceptively simple and claim incredible results which I cannot reproduce on my own. I have started to think there is something being withheld by this people and that these could explain why they get great results and I don't .....

Refine Edge is refining your selection marquee. Save the selection as a mask on the target layer then drag the layer to the other document. Or "Layer via Copy" (Cmd/Ctrl+J) can be used to make a new layer according to the active selection, then drag that layer to the other document.
By the way, Refine Edge has output options at the bottom of its window where you can specify such things as a new masked layer.
And there's Refine Mask which is the same as Refine Edge except it acts on an already existing mask. It can be accessed by "Mask Edge..." in the Properties panel (CS6) or Masks panel (CS5) when a layer mask is targeted.

Refine Edge produces Grayish area where brushed

Hi,
I have a photo with a woman with white background (255,255,255) and have selected the background with the magic wand set with 0 tolerance. I have been careful not to select any white areas (not even the eye white) so as to tell Photoshop that white IS NOT foreground. I thought this would help after seeing a video where it was stated that it was important not to select any colors of the background.
I open refine edge on the mask (first inverting it to select only the model) and choose to see it in black (since I want to place the photo in a very dark background). When I brush the area with hair inside the whole produced by her arm raised to touch the top of the head, the hair becomes slightly colored and the background becomes gray, all with very low contrast. I can't find a way to make the background black in these brushed areas. No matter what sliders I move in Refine Edge, there is no way to get rid of the horrible and useless gray.
Can somebody please help me? It is not the first image with this problem - I think Refine Edge is probably in a beta form.
Thanks,
Juan
Message was edited by: [email protected]

Juan, I opened your image at full resolution into Photoshop CC 2014.
I then proceeded to select the girl with the Quick Selection Tool, using selection and deselection (via Alt) to teach it what I wanted selected and what not. It took all of about 1 minute to do. The selection stopped short of selecting any of the hair that goes into the blue background, just as in Russell Brown's video. For example:
Then I touched up a couple of places where deselection didn't completely eliminate the blue parts under her armpits.
After the selection process, I used the [ Refine Edge ] button. I brushed over the areas of transition, just as in Russell's video, around where her hair meets the background, then adjusted the Contrast setting in the Refine Edge tool a bit. I chose several different backgrounds (White, Black) from the selector in the Refine Edge dialog to allow me to see how the mask looked, and I moved the Shift Edge slider a bit. Finally I selected "New Layer With Layer Mask" and completed the Refine Edge process.
I then put part of one of my own photos in the background and blurred it with a Field Blur.
Here's the result:
I didn't think too long on the choice of background material, though it came out kind of provocative. I was just looking for something where I could put light behind her hair.
This whole process would have worked even better working from the original raw data, if the input hadn't been JPEG compressed.
Here's the PSD file with the mask in it.
http://Noel.ProDigitalSoftware.com/temp/GirlMasked.zip
Here's the detailed Photoshop edit log showing specific settings I chose. Note the starting and ending time.
http://Noel.ProDigitalSoftware.com/temp/DetailedEditLog.txt
-Noel

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.

Anyone have a refine edge/mask 'program error' failure?

Refine mask or edge constantly fails and reports a 'program error' dialog box after the OK button is pressed.
The file is small and my computer has the horsepower to handle it - Win7 64bit, I720, 12GB ram, and 100GB scratch disk space. Saphire ATI 4850 video 1GB ram. Tried disabling GUI acceleration no luck.
This has started after I did a reinstall of CS5 last week.
Searched Google and narry a mention of it.
And this was my most desired new feature in CS5. Everything else seems to be running fine with the exception of certain modified f keys (such a shift - f?) not working properly but this has been reported by others.
Larry

Chris,
My memory is a little fuzzy right now as to exactly what was causing the
problem. Anyway I don't encounter it much anymore.
If I remember correctly I had the mask attached to curves adjustment
layer and ran refine edges from there. Example I wanted to darken the
sky so I made a selection of the sky. The horizon had lots of trees
which needed the refine edge command to clean up. I ended up applying
the mask to the pixel based image and clipped the curves layer to it.
Same result as far as the adjustment goes but the refine edge command
worked with the mask attached to the pixel based image. So, if I
remember correctly, it was a non-pixel layer with the mask attached that
caused the problem. Maybe I was using Decontaminate colors which could
cause the problem on a non-pixel layer. Could be that it worked
sometimes because I did not use Decontaminate and failed when used.
Anyway, I avoid attaching mask to non-pixel layers if I am going to use
refine edge. Have not run into errors since, but then it could have been
fixed in 12.0.1 update. Or maybe the stars are aligned properly now. Who
knows?
Win 7 64 bit, 12GB ram, I720
Larry

Refine edge in masks CS6

every time i try to refine the edge of a mask, it begins to erase my picture instead of adding in the hair etc. i tried this on several computers at school and it did the same thing, so it isnt my computer/software. my teacher has sat down with me several times and said im not doing anything wrong. this has NEVER worked for me and im extremely frustrated. PLEASE help

no difference.
i have tried to check and uncheck everything...
if i adjust the sliders, i get NO Preview... but when i click OK, the resulting photo has been completely ruined by the tool...
I tried deleting preferences...no change
the weird thing is that this problem was very sudden. Just a few weeks ago, I was using refine edge with NO PROBLEM. it is my GO TO tool for extracting people out of pictures...
but then one day, it just stopped working...
Do i need to reinstall CS6???

Problem with Refine Mask (Edge) Tool (+Refine Radius Brush)

Hey all,
I'm a teacher at Vancouver Film School in Canada.
Having some major problems with the Refine Mask tool in Photoshop CS5 (+5.1)
Especially when using the Decontaminate colours check box.
it eliminates smart objects
it leaves artifacting (especially in areas where I use the Refine Radius tool.) see posted image
these are consistent problems.When I uncheck decontaminate colours, the artifacting doesn't happen and smart objects stay in tact.
Is anyone else having problems with this?
Also having this problem
sometimes the radius will only increase INSIDE the selection and not in the center like it should. This is the most frustrating because it's not consistent but happened on 4 systems yesterday while teaching a class.

Hi Notsosimpleton,
You most likely already know this stuff.
I have been experimenting with two images with Photoshop. I agree that masking is a non destructive method of editing your image, but when you choose to use the decontaminate color option the refine edge feature automatically changes from new mask to new layer with mask indicating that the decontamination is destructive.
Smart objects by there nature prevent pixel level modification. From my (general) understanding of the decontaminate color feature, Photoshop is attempting to replace edges which contain colors from the non selected area with colors from the selected area, in turn your smart object needs to be rasterized to allow this process to take place. This then creates artificating because Photoshop is painting on to edges with color, leaving undesired rubbish around your selection. The majority of this is hidden by the mask.
Changing your selection method or using clone stamp with the blend mode set to color and replace edges using selections from inside the selection area. Affectively doing what Photoshop would do, but manually.
I am not sure this really helps?, but I always try using other masking methods to achieve the result i.e. channels, paths. I would be happy to experiment and share the results.

Adjusting settings in Refine Edge after outputting new layer mask?

After using Refine Edge in CS5.5 and removing the background from an image, I set it to output as a new layer mask. Next I place the image on top of a background and see that it needs some additional adjustments. How do I now get back to the Refine Edge window where I can see the changes I made previously and modify some of the settings? When I reopen the Refine Edge window the settings from before are no longer there.
Thanks.

You need to select the layer mask, and use refine Mask rather that Refine edge. There is an excellent tutorial by Martin Evening here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssJRkbkHAa4

Refine Edge - Removing mask edge ?

Hi,
I teach Photoshop 5.5 and have started teaching Photoshop Touch to some of my younger students.
I am having trouble with the refine edge tool which works well in CS 5.5
The scribble selection tool works well however I need to use the refine edge tool to improve the selection. This works well until I need to remove part of the mask.
I change to the eraser, however it does not remove the area that is now selected.
Where can I find more info and tutorials on using the refine edge tool to get a perfect edge selection?
I am trying to extract people to create a collage.
Thank You
Sean Udal

This looks like a bug actually; when I make a selection and then try to refine using the refine edge tool, I cannot add OR subtract from the mask (and the mask edge gets really wonky when you first paint or erase).
Can anyone from Adobe confirm? Using PS Touch ver. 1.2 for Android.

Refine Edge in Photoshop CS6 superior to Fluid Mask 3?

I have been using Fluid Mask 3 since Photoshop CS3.
But, recently, looking at a tutorial at a retouch DVD I bought, it seems that the CS6 version of Refine Edge is superior to Fluid Mask.
It seems to have a far more advanced algorithm, and the fact you can work in layer mode with actually seeing what you are masking off in real view, it seems to me it's time to ditch Fluid Mask 3.
What's your take on this?

no difference.
i have tried to check and uncheck everything...
if i adjust the sliders, i get NO Preview... but when i click OK, the resulting photo has been completely ruined by the tool...
I tried deleting preferences...no change
the weird thing is that this problem was very sudden. Just a few weeks ago, I was using refine edge with NO PROBLEM. it is my GO TO tool for extracting people out of pictures...
but then one day, it just stopped working...
Do i need to reinstall CS6???

Ps CC: Quick Mask is unresponsive after using Refine Edge?

Anyone know why Quick Mask is unresponsive after I've used "Refine Edge"
It works fine if I just make a simple selection first.

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...

Refine edge/Masking

Please help, I have read many threads and tutorials regarding this and am still having issues. In outline, I have takena number of photos to use on a website/flyer, I used the magic wand and refine edge tool to extract the image but when I go to drag it from photoshop into indesign the cut out is good but it has a white background? I have tried saving it as a gif and png then drag it from mini bridge into indesign but still has white background......any help would be most appreciated.
Thanks
Richard

Dragging from photoshop probably won't work so well for transparency, but
you should be able to drag from mini bridge and maintain the transparency
and use you can also use File>Place in Indesign. To maintain image quality
you can use png or psd, but not gif.
Before you saved your png did you turn off the visibilty of the background layer?
Maybe if you posted a screenshot of your photoshop layers panel someone
could spot the problem.
MTSTUNER

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.

Could not complete the Refine Edge command because of a program error.

This is kind of me being a smart ***… but, I’ve found an Error with the new refine edge. And I’ve solved the problem:
If you check “remember settings” and refine a selection with output set to “New Layer with Layer Mask” and then try and refine another selection when you have an adjustment layer selected, the “New Layer with Layer Mask” is greyed out, but unless you change the output setting to something not greyed out, you get the error "Could not complete the Refine Edge command because of a program error.”.
I’m sure there’s a better place I could have posted this and all that, but there you have it.
Oh, and the solution is to just change the “Output to” to something not greyed out.

Without system information and details on what exactly you are trying to do like what channel/ mask/ slection you are trying to refine in what specific image nobody can really say anything. Such errors are always specific. It would be best if you provided a screenshot of the selection in the image.
Mylenium

Refine Edge vs Refine Mask

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