magic wand has leaves hard edge?!

[Simplesimon101]

Hi,

I've been using photoshop for a few years... but since i installed cs3 when i use the magic wand tool to select a colour it always gives me a blocky hard edge... i'm confused...

has a setting changed or something? how do i get it back to always giving me a slightly feathered edge?

thanks

 

[rowensiv]

i'm not a photoshop expert, but if the color is not 100% identical, it may not select it, giving you a blocky edge... cs3 is supposed to be better... just a guess...

 

[jerryrock]

After making your selection, click the refine edge button on the tool options bar (below the menu bar). You will get the following dialog box to adjust the selection area:

 

[Simplesimon101]

thanks... but i don't think that's the problem this time.

the work i'm doing at the moment i need to select an object and it's all the exact same colour and background is pure white. it picks it up fine it's just the edge is really harsh... not feathered at all.

 

[LeviG]

thanks... but i don't think that's the problem this time.

the work i'm doing at the moment i need to select an object and it's all the exact same colour and background is pure white. it picks it up fine it's just the edge is really harsh... not feathered at all.

If the difference between the white and colour is outside the tolerance range then its going to be a harsh edge. If you want a feather, just add one (select, modify, feather).

 

[jerryrock]

Make sure you have the Anti-alias tic box checked in the tool options bar:

 

[Simplesimon101]

um... it seems to be because it's a solid colour on a transparent background? (it seems to pick up all the levels of transparency of that colour but doesn't carry the transparency values over when using it to cut out another shape... so you can add a feather but it's a new feather not the original... if that makes sense?)

but thanks it worked out ok in the end... I used the 'refine edges' tool box and that seemed to do the trick. (i was just wondering if there was something obvious i missed? 'anti-alias' is already ticked)

thanks for all your help.

 

[IgnatiusTheKing]

um... it seems to be because it's a solid colour on a transparent background? (it seems to pick up all the levels of transparency of that colour but doesn't carry the transparency values over when using it to cut out another shape... so you can add a feather but it's a new feather not the original... if that makes sense?)

but thanks it worked out ok in the end... I used the 'refine edges' tool box and that seemed to do the trick. (i was just wondering if there was something obvious i missed? 'anti-alias' is already ticked)

thanks for all your help.

Are you using the Magic Wand tool or the Quick Selection tool? They occupy the same space in the Tools pallet and both have the keyboard shortcut "W" but Quick Selection is now the default "W" tool. I don't believe that was the case in CS2.