Best method to quickly select a bird or other object in CS5?

[Barry Ekstrand]

I'm sure this is a really basic question to many folks, but between different PS books and web searches I need some input. I have been using the Quick Selection Tool, Lasso Tool, and Quick Masking technique to select a bird in a photo. I don't have good luck with the Quick Selection Tool with the fine differentiation needed at feathers, etc. and the Lasso Tool is very tedious to me. The Quick Masking technique works well for me but I am not particularly fast in brushing the edges fine details of the bird. Am I missing a faster way to make a selection of the outline of the bird without grabbing background?

Any advice will be appreciated.

Barry

[Roger Clark]

Hi Barry,
In my opinion, there is no single method that works better than others in all situations. I'll often use a combination, changing methods depending on image content. It is generally easier to select the smooth background and invert for the bird.

Roger

[Robert Amoruso]

I think Roger gave you the best advice - go the the background and invert.

Fine selection of feathers is very difficult w/o getting down to almost a pixel level. It all really comes down to what you are trying to accomplish. I will give you an example.

I don't try to spend a lot of time sharpening my small JP bird images for posting and will run sharpening on the whole image. If I get a halo, I undo the sharpening first. Then I make a BG selection and invert it. I then shift the edge in (using Refine Edge) so the actual edge is not selected. I then feather it. Then I sharpen the bird. SO the BG and the edges of the bird where it meets the BG (lets say sky) don't get sharpened. Since the transition at the sky to feather is abrupt anyway, sharpening is not really need there IMO. Sharpening the internal portions of the bird handles the perceived sharpness of the whole image.

[Jerry van Dijk]

I'm not very good at masking too. I tend to use the adjustment brush in ACR a lot. It gives you very good control over feathering and where you paint on the mask. It's easy to see what you are doing because you can toggle the mask on and off at will. Also, it' very easy to add or remove parts of the mask and you can always adjust sharpness and other adjustments afterward, for instance if you decide to decide to sharpen the whole image after you sharpened the bird (which would oversharpen the bird). Downside is that it offers limited control over the sharpening itself. It's just one sharpening mode for which you can only vary the intensity.

[John Chardine]

Topaz Remask does the job even on fine detail. It's a Ps plugin. I use it. It works.

[Nancy Bell]

I use a Wacom pen & tablet and have no trouble selecting small and/fine areas of the image. The pen gives wonderful control.