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phlearn select subject 2020
  • Testing the NEW Select Subject Tool in Photoshop 2020

  • by Aaron Nace
    July 7, 2020
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The latest update to Photoshop 2020 brought big changes to some of our favorite tools. At the top of our list of new features to test: Select Subject!

Join us as we take a look at the new updates to the Select Subject tool, powered by Adobe Sensei AI. We put it to the test by cutting out subjects from three different images of varying complexity. Does the new Select Subject make it possible to cut out a subject from a simple background in only two clicks? Can it handle removing more colorful and complicated backgrounds? And, the big question on everyone’s mind, can it cut out hair?

Let’s find out!

If you want to dive right into the advanced tools and techniques for making selections and cutting out people and objects, check out How to Remove Backgrounds in Photoshop!

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phlearn select subject 2020

phlearn select subject 2020

TESTING SELECT SUBJECT

Selections in a Snap

Removing Backgrounds with Select Subject

The best part about Select Subject is how easy it is to use. Once you’ve loaded an image into Photoshop, just select that Layer, click on the Select menu, and then on Select Subject. That’s it!

phlearn select subject 2020

Photoshop does all the work behind the scenes and will create a selection of what it thinks the subject is in the photo. But even on the simplest of backgrounds, Select Subject reveals what it can do and what it can’t. For an automated tool, it does a pretty impressive job of recognizing the outline of a person and making a relatively accurate selection of them. However, there will almost always be some edges that it misses due to inconsistencies with color or lighting.

phlearn select subject 2020

These are the images we’re using to test the range of Select Subject. Each represents a different level of complexity for selecting and removing a background. Some subjects will be on relatively plain backgrounds that are almost entirely one solid color that the subject stands out from. Some subjects will be in front of still simple backgrounds, but with a little bit more detail. Additionally the subject might have some hair detail that needs to be preserved. And some subjects will be on colorful, complex backgrounds. To make things even more difficult, the colors of the subject may be similar to the background colors, and you might have to deal with cutting out a lot of fine hair details.

Things brings up the main point of this test: automated tools like Select Subject are a great start for creating a selection, but will rarely provide polished results you’d want in your final images and composites. But when you take Select Subject and combine it with another relatively fast and easy tool for refining selections, you have a powerful one-two punch for creating fast and accurate cutouts. Let’s take a look at Select and Mask!

Select and Mask

Select and Mask is a tool designed to help us refine our selections in Photoshop. When automated tools like Select Subject or the Magic Wand Tool have trouble, Select and Mask allows us to fix any issues or problem areas with ease.

So how does it work?

phlearn select subject 2020

Here we’ve made our initial selection with Select Subject, but the tool missed some areas.

Once you’ve made an initial selection you can load Select and Mask by opening the Select menu, and then clicking on the Select and Mask option. A new window will open with some tools along the left side of the screen, settings down the right side, and your image/selection preview in the center. To make things easier to see as you work, we recommend using the Overlay View Mode which can be set using the View Mode drop-down located near the top right of the screen within the Properties Panel. Overlay will display any areas that are NOT selected as a reddish-orange color. Everything else that’s selected will appear with original colors displayed.

phlearn select subject 2020

Now that everything is easier to see, let’s take a look at some of the tools within Select and Mask that can help use refine our selections.

The Quick Selection Tool

As its name implies, the Quick Selection Tool is another automated tool within Select and Mask that allows us to make quick changes to more troublesome areas of a photo. Simply select the tool, zoom into an area that you want to be added to the selection, and then click within that area. Photoshop will try to determine what it is you want selected and try to separate those areas from the background.

phlearn select subject 2020

This tool can be helpful and fast for areas that are distinctly different from the background. If you have a subject in front of a relatively plain background that’s different enough in color and lightness from the subject and their clothing, this should do a pretty good job of identifying the differences and adding the right bits to the selection. But if you’re working with a more complex background that’s similar in color and lightness to the subject, you’re going to need something a little more precise and little more manual.

The Refine Edge Brush Tool

Oftentimes, Select Subject will select almost all of the subject but the edges around the subject will be rough and inconsistent. The edge of the selection may be too far in, resulting in parts of the subject’s skin and wardrobe being cut out, or it may be too far out, resulting in some of the background appearing as thing slices of color fringing.

The Refine Edge Tool works much like the Brush Tool in Photoshop. Simply paint along the edges of your subject, and it will try to better distinguish the subject from the background to refine the selection. By default, it’s set to add missing areas to a selection. You can hold ALT or OPTN to reverse that effect so that it removes excess or unwanted areas.

phlearn select subject 2020

The Refine Edge Tool can even help with detailed areas like hair. While we still prefer to use Channels in delicate areas like this, Refine Edge can be a much faster alternative.

While it does provide a little more control over the Quick Selection Tool, the Refine Edge Brush Tool is still largely automated. Even though you’re painting over areas to fix, Photoshop is still doing a lot of work behind the scenes to try and determine what changes it thinks you want to make. So what can we use when we want something purely manual?

The Brush Tool

Here we go! The Brush Tool is our solution when we want to choose exactly what we want as part of a selection or not part of a selection. It has two modes: an option for adding painted areas to a selection and an option for removing areas from a selection. Choose which mode you want to use and then paint over an area to either add or remove it.

phlearn select subject 2020

As with any other Brush Tool in Photoshop, it has options for hardness and softness and opacity, allowing you to blend the selection with the image as you see fit. Now, this does add a lot of precision to the process, but with precision comes an investment of time and patience. We recommend using the automated options up until they just can’t do what you’re asking of them, then switch to manual tools like the Brush Tool to finish the job.

Some Other Options

Once you’re happy with the selection overall, there are a couple of options we recommend to make sure you get the best possible results as you continue working in Photoshop. Both are located under the Output Setting drop-down near the bottom of the Properties Panel. First, check the option for Decontaminate Colors. This will help reduce or remove any excess color fringing along the edges of the subject. This is especially helpful for areas with fine detail, like hair, that can be hard to get a perfect clean and accurate selection of. For example, light hair in front of a dark background might end up with dark color fringing. This option can help reduce that.

phlearn select subject 2020

The other option is to set the Output To: drop-down to New Layer and Layer Mask. This does two things: it will duplicate the Layer you’re working on, which is always good for a non-destructive workflow, and it will convert the selection into a Layer Mask which opens it up for further refinement using other more advanced tools like the Pen Tool, the Brush Tool, and Channels.

Select Subject in Photoshop 2020

Even though we spent most of our time talking about Select and Mask, the point of this episode was to discuss the new Select Subject tool in Photoshop 2020. Our verdict? Adobe continues to improve its automated tools and, eventually, they may get to a point where we can throw the more arduous manual processes out the window. But for right now, we need those manual tools and refinement options to achieve a polished and professional result.

That being said, selections in Photoshop are all about refinement. No matter what tool you start with, you’re likely going to have to circle back around to clean things up, or switch to a different tool entirely to tackle a particular area. Since we often find ourselves starting with rough selections and dialing them in over time, Select Subject is a great way to start any cutout or background removal. In just a couple of clicks you’ll have a pretty decent selection, and then you can easily take that selection into Select and Mask to clean it up.

Ready to learn more? Learn about all of the tools you can use to cut subjects out in How to Remove Backgrounds in Photoshop and how to make ultra-details selections of hair in How to Cut Out Hair in Photoshop.

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