Refine Edge

Hi all,
I'm trying the Refine Edge command to extract objects from images, Here's what I'm using:
As you can see I've made the selection without any major problems, using the quick selection tool.
The problem starts when I'm using the Refine Edge command, I can't get an acceptable result. Can you guys help me?
Here's the original image;
Thanks
Luís

You've posted the image at far too small a size to do effective high quality hair masking. You should be working with a MUCH larger image.
That said, the image does lend itself to Refine Edge if you use the tools adeptly...
Try Russell Brown's "Less is More" strategy and don't select so much of the hair to begin with... This video is WELL worth watching:
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/the-russell-brown-show/masking-basics-in-photoshop-cs5/
-Noel

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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

When I try to use the refine edge command I get this message could not complete the refine edge comm

when I try to use the refine edge command I get this message could not complete the refine edge command because of programe error

Quit the editor, then restart it while holding ctrl+alt+shift (command+option+shift on a mac). Keep the keys down till you see a window asking if you want to delete the settings file. You do.

My Refine Edge in Photoshop CS6 has STOPPED WORKING, please help!

Photoshop CS6
Windows 8.1
I have been using refine edge with no problem for months.
everything worked great!
I was able to extract out hair and edges very, very, very well...
but about 2 weeks ago...something changed... the refine edge brush no longer works.
When I click on Refine Edge... instead of a brush icon, I get the CIRCLE with a SLASH and my system keeps dinging because the tool is just not available.
I deleted my preferences...but it is still a problem
NOW... when I adjust the sliders, i don't see a preview of the adjustments...
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???

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.

Refine edge not working in cs6 64 bit

This might be user error, but I'm having difficulty with the Refine Edge tool. When I use Quick Selection to highlight a subject, and click on Refine Edge, I am unable to add or remove part of the selected region from the mask. I can erase, or draw over, and it shows, until I depress the mouse, and it goes back to the original selection. I reset my preferences and still not working. It has worked in the past. Just stopped working.
Thanks for your help!

Anyone can help me ? Thanks

Operation of "Refine Edge" in Photoshop Elements 11?

In trying to use "Refine Edge" in PSE 11, having obtained the drop down menu and clicked on "Refine Radius Tool" - the icon turns to the prohibition sign
rather than a brush. None of the menu controls has any effect. I have watched several instructional videos on this subject and so I think I know what I am doing!
But I cannot find any control to change the situation. Anyone met this before? Most grateful for suggestions.

It's possible in the Refine Edge dialog you have Show Original checked.
If so, uncheck Show Original and see if the makes a difference.

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

Refine edge contamination I think!!!

It is hard to explain but here goes....if I display an image and i take quick selection tool and make a circle or some formation and if I paint on either side of the selection I get a very distict line of where I have paint and it is seperated perfectly where the selection is. In other words where I painted it is pure and only the color I painted. and this the way it should be and the brush is 100% opacity. OK this is the easy part............if I take the same selection and do a refine edge on it and make a adjustment in refine edge...ie...move the radius slider or any other control that moves the selection and we will say the selection get larger or smaller does not make any difference and I say OK and then I get back my image and I go to paint it there is always some discoloration within the painted surface it is not even the color is discolored or contaminated...even when I give the command remove contaminated colors it is still there and even on a layer you can see the little square in varying shades of grey...it makes no differece if say get rid of the contaminated colors....I still get that discoloration...I hope this explanation is clear and someone else has had this problem and there is a fix for it
Capt M
I have spent many hours trying find a solution

Capt, have you seen this video by Russell Brown? His "less is more" philosophy can help with Refine Edges.
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/the-russell-brown-show/masking-basics-in-photoshop-cs5/
Perhaps you're expecting "Refine Edge" to do different things than it does. Used adeptly, it can work quite well. It works best on high quality imagery and at high resolution. And you may well have to do some masking work afterward, but it gets you close in a hurry.
-Noel

Extract Filter v Refine Edge CS5

I hear a lot of people talking blithely about how superior Refine Edge is to the previous Extract Filter.
If you look at the two sample files called "Auto Align 1" and "Auto Align 2" in the tutorials folder a couple of versions back you'll find 2 children with sharp outlines against the background and frothy hair around the girl. Can someone please explain to me how refine edge can - in 1 fell swoop - eliminate the clearly defined background around the shoulders AND leave the frothiness of the girls' hair? Until then I stand resolute that REFINE EDGE is NOT a substitute for the EXTRACT FILTER at all!

Based on my experience, I suggest the following, when using Refine Edge:
1. Foremost: Work on as high resolution an image as you can.
2. As I mentioned, listen carefully to what Russell Brown says in his video. Less is more when it comes to selection, then add areas of transition.
3. Take the time, as you might with the old extract filter, to brush carefully over the areas of transition to make sure you get all the strands.
4. Check your results against the white and black backgrounds using W and B shortcut keys to make sure you've got all the areas of transition you need.
5. Don't be afraid to use the Decontaminate Colors feature - possibly even cranked all the way up.
6. Understand that if you're masking someone Photographed in a light studio, that hair highlights and other visual cues might not look right against a dark background, and you may need to use the Burn tool or other techniques to help hide that. The eye/brain are great at picking up inconsistencies in the lighting, and that has little to do with masking.
As with anything, it takes some getting used to and practice, but the results can be quite good.
-Noel

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

Photoshop Elements 6: "Refine Edge", where is it?

I'm trying to follow these instructions:
In the Layers palette, make sure the proper layer mask is active.
In the Effects palette, double-click the "Refine Edge" pictogram.
In the Effects palette, I see Filters, Layer Styles, etc ... I can't find Refine Edge?

Thank you Barbara ... I couldn't find it in any of the tools (lasso, magic wand, ...) for example my lasso tool option bar shows: selection options (new selection, add to selection, etc.) feather, anti-alias, width, edge contrast, frequency, and tablet pressure ... don't see "refine edge". But there it was under the Select menu. I really appreciate your prompt response. Trying to learn from a book tends to be time consuming and aggravating as it's easy to get hung up on little issues like this, resolving it made my day.

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.

PS CC 2014 how to get better results from refine edge

In the attached image below you will see "Jesus on the cross" which I want to substitute a new background. On the left is a portion of the unselected image and on the right is the best result I can get via refine edge tool. I have tried all the usual methods such as channels, increasing contrats etc but this is the best I can get. The top thorns had the same problem but what you see now is an hour of manual selection. How do I get a better result - why is it that when the rfine edge brush is swept over such it often only produces transparent results?

I am keep working on this problem today.
I tried Particle Analysis, the result is un-repeatable either. But when I decide to find Straight edge direct from source image,without any process,the angle is more repeatable,Max deviation is 0.03-0.06 degree.It seems my process to the image make thing worse.Then I found the algorithm to find straight is something like linear fit : find all the edge points,linear fit and calculate the angle.
So I run my program for images those pixel resolution is 1280*960,the Max deviation is much lower: 0.008 degree.
If I am right,the best resolution to my problem is to change my camera to higher resolution.
Any advises is appreciate! Thank you!

Refine Edge

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