Making selections

[waynesworld]

In Photoshop 6 or 7 for Mac, I have a couple of questions about making selections. Let's say I make a complicated selection around an image with the Lasso tool with 0 feather pixel setting. I save this selection so that I can use it again if necessary.

First, is it possible to make it a feather pixel value after the selection is made or do I have to start a new one from scratch?

Second, is it possible to make part of a selection with a feather pixel setting and part without? Or is the only solution to make the 2 different setting selections and then separately cut and paste them together?

waynesworld

 

[jimoblak]

If you save a hard-edged selection, it will become a new channel in the Channels palette.

1) Select only this channel.
2) Use the lasso or your fav tool to make a subselection of your selection
3) Apply Filter>Blur>Gaussian to feather

 

[waynesworld]

Jimoblak,

Thanks for your response. It sounds good, but I'm not understanding something. I've saved a selection and I see it there selected in the Channels palette under Alpha 1 (below the CMYK channels). I'm not sure what is meant to make a subselection of this selection. If I loosely select outside it, that becomes the selection instead. If I don't select the selection but apply the filter, it does the blur either inside the selection or outside it if inverted. but either way, it is unaffected in the actual image.

 

[jimoblak]

I'm not sure what is meant to make a subselection of this selection.
You should use the lasso to select the edges of your existing selection where you want feathering (leaving a padded area around the edge of your original selection so that blurring/feathering can occur). Your lasso'd selection will include black and white areas. If you select only black or white with the lasso, you will not be able to feather the edge of the original selection.

4) Deselect all
5) Return to viewing all channels (Choose CMYK)
6) Select>Load selection -> load the selection/channel that you just adjusted.

 

[sdraper]

or Select>Load selection> load the saved hard edged selection
then Select> feather set the value and click OK
then Select> save selection (with a different name)
Then look in the Channels palette and you will see both your original hard edged mask and your new channel with the feathered edges.
question #2
I think Jimoblak answered you for this one. You could also use the blur tool to feather (blur) the portions of the channel (selectio) that you want to feather.
Most importantly, experiment and HAVE FUN!!
hope this helps,
sdraper