feather quick mask, please

[dmstraker]

It would be great if I could add feathering to the quick mask brush.

 

Thank you!

[anon1]

the quick mask brush is just the regular brush 

only difference: it interprets shades of grey as selection/ non selection 

 

adjusting the hardness should give you the desired effect 

[dmstraker]

Of course. My brain is addled today. Rewind (whirr). Here's what happened:

 

I did a selection. Then Quick Mask (so I can see selected area). Then painted with the Selection Brush (snap to edges: off).

 

The Quick Mask is, guess what, a Mask. I should have used the Paint Brush and painted feathered with white.

 

Despite my idiocy, a question remains: would it be useful to allow feathering (and even hardness/opacity) on the Selection Brush?

[anon1]

Since quick mask is just one button press away

Q

 

And also has the option to use different brushes I don't think it is necessary

[MEB]

Hi dmstraker,

You can use the hardness of the brush setting to control the feathering while painting. You can change this in real-time pressing ⌃(ctrl) + ⌥ (option/alt) and dragging the mouse vertically (dragging horizontally changes the brush size). If you want to feather a selection (already created) go to menu Select ▸ Feather..., or alternatively Select ▸ Refine Edges... and use the Feather slider to control the effect.

[dmstraker]

Ctrl-Alt Paintbrush does nothing until I start to drag it, then it becomes a colour picker. Left mouse button-Right mouse button-drag allows changes to brush size (horizontal movement) and feather (vertical movement). Other feathering is good.

 

A practical problem with selection brush feathering seems how to show it. But then Quick Mask solves this. It's not a hill I'm going to die on, but I still think allowing feathering when painting with the selection brush would be helpful. Even when snapping to edge, it would be nice to say 'add a couple of pixels feather' rather than having to accept the hard edge and post-feather it.

 

A related puzzle: Select something. You can Select/Feather.. (and any of that menu group). But with the Quick Mask on, you cannot. I can't see the logic of this restriction.

[Fixx]

A related puzzle: Select something. You can Select/Feather.. (and any of that menu group). But with the Quick Mask on, you cannot. I can't see the logic of this restriction.

There is definitely a logic.

Feather applies to selections. But initially quick mask transforms your selection to pixel layer so it is not anymore a selection. If you want to feather the edge you use blur filter.

Feather is accessible in quick mask mode if you make a selection, but that is a new selection that applies only to mask, not to original image.

[anon1]

you can make a selection(1)

turn on quickmask

and make a selection(2) of the selection(1)  :) to modify parts of the selection(1)

 

if you try it it is actually easy 

 

just remember which tools belong to selections (refined add, subtract) and which belong to quick mask/pixel work (move tool with rotate, scale .., all kind of blurs, all brushes)

 

cheers  :)