By definition, a feathered edge is one that has a soft blur applied to it. You can apply these feathered edges without using the Blur filter. Feathered edges are great for creating custom glow and shadow effects, and can also be useful when blending image layers together. In Photoshop, you can apply a feathered edge to a selection by pre-feathering or post-feathering.
Pre-feathering Before making a selection with any of the marquee or lasso tools, you can apply a feathered edge to it. These are the only selection tools that allow you to pre-feather. By entering a pixel value in the Feather field of the Options palette before drawing with the tool, you are telling Photoshop to apply a feathered edge to the selection you are about to make. What’s confusing about this is that your image won’t look any different after making the selection. In order to see the soft, blurred edge, you must delete the selected area, make an adjustment (such as Levels or Hue/Saturation), or fill the selected area with a color.
Post-feathering To apply a feathered edge to a selection that has already been made with any selection tool, choose Select --> Modify --> Feather, or press Option+F+D / Alt+Ctrl+D. Enter a feather radius in the Feather Selection dialog box that appears. Keep in mind that larger values result in softer edges. Click OK to close the dialog and apply the feather.
Feathering a selection after you’ve made it is the more common way to soften its edge, mainly because you can do it to any selection made with any tool.
Feathered Masks
In the days before digital photography, a physical mask (such as a sheet of paper) was placed over unexposed photographic film in a darkroom to prevent stray or unwanted light from reaching specific areas of an image. This technique allowed the photographer to darken or completely hide a portion of the image. In Photoshop, you can achieve the same effect by adding variations of gray to a layer mask. You can also use layer masks to control which areas of an image are affected by layer adjustment effects (such as Levels, Hue/Saturation, and so forth).
The following image was created for use in a magazine article about shopping for a used car (and about how to know when you’re buying a lemon). To illustrate this concept, I combined two images by using layers, masks, and feathered selections. Before I explain how I used feathered masks to create this image, let me first point out why I used them. When using Photoshop to edit graphics for print design, you never want to permanently alter pixels unless you absolutely have to. To avoid making permanent edits, you should always use layer masks whenever possible. In the example shown here, it was possible to create a feathered mask by adding a feathered edge to a selection when working in the masked portion of the layer.
With the car image layer hidden, I made the original selection of the lemon by F/Ctrl+clicking the transparent layer. The next step was to reduce the selection by choosing Select ➢Transform Selection. Holding down Shift to constrain the overall proportions and Option/Alt to scale from the center, I reduced the selection by about 20%. Then, using the Feather command, I applied a 100-pixel feather. I then selected the car layer, made it visible again by clicking the eye icon, and added a layer mask by clicking the layer mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Doing so applied a feathered mask to the image. This is what is called nondestructive editing.
Invert
Sometimes when you’re attempting to select a detailed object, it can be easier to select the object’s background first and then invert the selection path. Although this may sound like a backward way to work (and it is), it can get you the end result you’re looking for and that’s all that matters. For example, in order to select the detailed building, it makes more sense to select the surrounding white background area with the Magic Wand tool and invert the selection.
With the background area selected, choosing Select --> Inverse, or pressing Shift+F+I / Shift+Ctrl+I, reverses the selection and—presto! The detailed foreground object is now selected.
Pre-feathering Before making a selection with any of the marquee or lasso tools, you can apply a feathered edge to it. These are the only selection tools that allow you to pre-feather. By entering a pixel value in the Feather field of the Options palette before drawing with the tool, you are telling Photoshop to apply a feathered edge to the selection you are about to make. What’s confusing about this is that your image won’t look any different after making the selection. In order to see the soft, blurred edge, you must delete the selected area, make an adjustment (such as Levels or Hue/Saturation), or fill the selected area with a color.
Post-feathering To apply a feathered edge to a selection that has already been made with any selection tool, choose Select --> Modify --> Feather, or press Option+F+D / Alt+Ctrl+D. Enter a feather radius in the Feather Selection dialog box that appears. Keep in mind that larger values result in softer edges. Click OK to close the dialog and apply the feather.
Feathering a selection after you’ve made it is the more common way to soften its edge, mainly because you can do it to any selection made with any tool.
Feathered Masks
In the days before digital photography, a physical mask (such as a sheet of paper) was placed over unexposed photographic film in a darkroom to prevent stray or unwanted light from reaching specific areas of an image. This technique allowed the photographer to darken or completely hide a portion of the image. In Photoshop, you can achieve the same effect by adding variations of gray to a layer mask. You can also use layer masks to control which areas of an image are affected by layer adjustment effects (such as Levels, Hue/Saturation, and so forth).
The following image was created for use in a magazine article about shopping for a used car (and about how to know when you’re buying a lemon). To illustrate this concept, I combined two images by using layers, masks, and feathered selections. Before I explain how I used feathered masks to create this image, let me first point out why I used them. When using Photoshop to edit graphics for print design, you never want to permanently alter pixels unless you absolutely have to. To avoid making permanent edits, you should always use layer masks whenever possible. In the example shown here, it was possible to create a feathered mask by adding a feathered edge to a selection when working in the masked portion of the layer.
With the car image layer hidden, I made the original selection of the lemon by F/Ctrl+clicking the transparent layer. The next step was to reduce the selection by choosing Select ➢Transform Selection. Holding down Shift to constrain the overall proportions and Option/Alt to scale from the center, I reduced the selection by about 20%. Then, using the Feather command, I applied a 100-pixel feather. I then selected the car layer, made it visible again by clicking the eye icon, and added a layer mask by clicking the layer mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Doing so applied a feathered mask to the image. This is what is called nondestructive editing.
Invert
Sometimes when you’re attempting to select a detailed object, it can be easier to select the object’s background first and then invert the selection path. Although this may sound like a backward way to work (and it is), it can get you the end result you’re looking for and that’s all that matters. For example, in order to select the detailed building, it makes more sense to select the surrounding white background area with the Magic Wand tool and invert the selection.
With the background area selected, choosing Select --> Inverse, or pressing Shift+F+I / Shift+Ctrl+I, reverses the selection and—presto! The detailed foreground object is now selected.
Feather
![Feather]()
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