Please see the photos below to understand my problem:

I'm using Photoshop CS1 to adjust the sky and landscape separately. I'm not very good with layers. I selected the sky using the magic wand and made it into a new layer using New Layer Via Copy. Then I tweaked it separately from the landscape.

BUT the resulting pictures always have a jaggy black and white edge between the sky and the land. I would really like a SIMPLE way to prevent this problem from arising, rather than to spend all day cleaning up the edge with various tools after it occurs.

Can anyone help? Please? Just remember, I am not an expert here, so please keep it simple for me if you can.

Thanks!

In photochop there is a smuge tool. Use that ;)

Enable anti-aliasing? I'd tell you how to do it, but I'm probably one of the worst people at photoshop in the history of the world. If you can find it, give it a shot!

Actually I read something on another forum a few days ago about this, there is a very quick/easy trick to solving the problem that few know about...but I'll be damned if I can remember it offhand. I'll see if I can find it again.

edit: here we go. The example he gave was cutting out a black shoe, and pasting it in front of a black background. It's black on black, but then you've got this irritating little 1-pixel white outline.


I use this one about everyday in my line of work.

So lets say you want to cut out something from a photo.

Many times when you cut the person or thing out, there is a white or other colored border left around the object.

Sometimes you don't see it till you apply a color behind the image. OH NO!
See Image below.

There is a very simple solution to this besides zooming in and erasing a bunch.

> Select layer of object
> Go up to Layer > Matting > Defringe

> 1 px usually does the trick, if the line is thicker try 2

White line is gone! Now you know a little secret to getting those nice cutouts.

step 1. I wouldnt use the wand at all.

pen pen pen

step 1. I wouldnt use the wand at all.

pen pen pen

romeo's right.
avoid the magic wand tool. try duplicating the original layer with the full image on it. delete the sky from the top layer using a simple eraser, maybe with a softer airbrush along the landscape if you dont want a hard edge to the edge of the hills. then youll have the sky and landscape on different layers. remember to lock your transparency on the landscape layer so any work you do on it (brushstrokes for color dodge, etc.) wont affect the sky layer. do you have a wacom tablet?

step 1. I wouldnt use the wand at all.

pen pen pen

yea or use the pen tool to get rid of the marching ants

OK; this is all great stuff. (I had tried the smudge but it was not a very elegant approach.) Thanks, you guys. I really appreciate it.

another thing youo might want to concider is the color range tool in this case.
since its a sky, there might be a lot of similar colors, I would select the sky layer and go to Select>Color Range... select the sky color, then play with the fuzziness untill most of the sky is white. (on your landscape layer) then delete that part of the layer (keeping a back up layer just in case you need to re touch anything) then drop in the sky layer on the back side... This is just something to play with, but Iwould still stick to the pen tool in this case.

-RoMeO

I select the edge with the pen tool and then use the blur filter to blend it

There is also an "extract" tool. It's pretty nifty. It brings up a little window and you can highlight around an object you want and then "fill" it. Then you click extract. Sometimes the result isn't too pretty, but then you can clean it up with the history brush.

If you run a google search on the extract tool in photoshop there are some good pages on it.

I find the extract tool works well on pix like this one. But not good for hard edge like cars

Romeo is right. The pen tool is where its at. It may take some time to outline the sky and then make a new layer, but I've found that it provides the best results.

Let us know if you need any help. Post your progress. Good luck.

Thanks again. I will hit these pix again this weekend and let you know.