The Photoshop Tip of the Week for the Clients and Friends of Ben Willmore (www.digitalmastery.com):

I hope you had a good weekend. It has started to get a bit chilly up here at Digital Mastery's world headquarters. We're hanging out in the mountains above Boulder and this morning, I even had to go downstairs and turn on the heat! So, braced by the Colorado cold, let's start off the week right by learning a few tricks about Photoshop's elusive, but incredibly useful QuickMask feature.

QuickMask mode is another way to look at a selection that you might have made using the Lasso or Marquee tools. After you've created a selection, just type "Q" to convert the selection into a red overlay. Now you can use normal painting tools to modify the selection by painting with black to add to the overlay, or with white to take away from it. Once you have everything the way you'd like it, just press "Q" again to transform the QuickMask back into a selection.

I have completely replaced the commands that appear under the Select>Modify menu with QuickMask Mode and a few filters. My reason? I'm not happy with the modify commands because they do not offer any sort of a preview of what is happening to your selection. Using QuickMask Mode gives you more control because it not only gives you a real-time preview, but it allows you to use additional commands (filters). In general, to modify a selection, type Q to turn on QuickMask Mode and then apply the desired filter, then type Q again to turn off QuickMask Mode and get your modified selection.

Select>Feather = Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur

Select>Modify>Contract = Filter>Other>Minimum

Select>Modify>Expand = Filter>Other>Maximum

Select>Modify>Smooth = Filter>Noise>Median.

Select>Modify>Border = Filter>Stylize>Glowing Edges. Set the Brightness setting to 20 and the Smoothness to 1, then use the Edge Width setting just like you'd usually use the Border command. This fixes multiple problems with Border: 1) it does not feather the selection (meaning doesn't make it fade out on the edge), 2) it does not round off the corners of rectangular selections (although you can round them by turning up the Smoothness setting), 3) You get a partial preview (within the filter's dialog box) BUT, beware, it does have one problem... it unfeathers a selection.

Or, if you prefer the Border command, be aware that Photoshop gives you not just a border, it also feathers your selection. To prevent the selection from becoming feathered, turn on QuickMask after applying Border, then choose Image>Adjust>Levels and change the Input settings to 125, 1.0 and 133. This will give you an anti-aliased selection. For a true hard-edged selection, instead of using Levels, choose Image>Adjust>Threshold.

Border Normally, when you make a border, your selection actually becomes bigger, extending beyond the edge of the original selection. What it's doing is centering itself on the marching ants. To avoid that and to keep your border inside the marching ants, turn on QuickMask Mode, then choose Filter>Sketch>photocopy. Adjust the Darkness setting to control how feathered the inner edge will appear, and adjust the Detail setting to control the width of the border.

If some of these tips seem less than easy at first glance, that's because just reading them won't always turn on the lightbulb. Give them a good test drive and give yourself some time to play around with the concepts. Once you're comfortable with these techniques, they can be extremely helpful.

And wherever you are… take a break from staring at your screen and go outside and enjoy the weather before everything starts being covered with snow. I'll catch you next week.

-Ben Willmore
Founder, Digital Mastery