How to Feather Edges in Photoshop in 4 Easy Steps

If you’ve ever tried to use Photoshop to combine multiple elements into one image, you’d know that it doesn’t always go according to plan—the seams don’t quite match up, the colors are a bit off and the whole thing ends up looking unrealistic.

Luckily, Photoshop offers a simple solution: you can seamlessly blend together different elements by feathering the edges. The best part is, it’s quite easy to do!

What is Feathering in Photoshop?

Feathering softens the edges by gradually making the pixels closest to the edge more and more transparent. This allows them to blend with the layer underneath.

You can choose how far into the center the feathering extends and achieve unique effects to fit the varying needs of your projects.

Ways to Use Feathering in Photoshop

There’s no default feathering tool in Photoshop or a single way to use it. Instead, it’s an effect you can apply to some of the tools you’re likely already familiar with. For example, you can:

Feather the edges of an entire image or layer
Feather the edges of a shape
Add a feather to a brush or an eraser by adjusting the “Hardness” slider and make small adjustments to parts of an image
Add feathered edges to vignettes
Feather the edges of a selection and copy and paste the selection to a separate layer

This last one is a particularly useful feature because it allows you to place a part of an image onto a new background and make it look like it always belonged there.

Let’s take a look at how to do this in Photoshop, using the image below as an example.

A photo of a single strawberry on a wooden surface. — Photo by Jennifer Hyman on Unsplash.

4 Simple Steps for Feathering in Photoshop Using Marquee Selections

Step 1: Make a Selection

Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool or the Elliptical Marquee Tool (click and hold the default Rectangular Marquee Tool to access it) to select the area of your image you’d like feathered. If you wish to create a perfect square or circle, hold down SHIFT as you drag the Marquee Tool across your image.

Alternatively, you can use the Lasso Tool to make a freehand selection.

Once you’re done, you’ll see moving black dashes surrounding your selection.

The strawberry photo is open in Photoshop. The area of the photo containing the strawberry is selected using the Elliptical Marquee Tool. — An area selected using the Elliptical Marquee Tool. Still from Adobe Photoshop.

Step 2: Select and Mask

With your desired area selected, head to Select > Select and Mask. This will open up a Properties panel on the right side of the screen.

Under View Mode, set the Transparency to 100%—this will allow you to clearly see your selection and any changes you make to it, while keeping the rest of the image completely transparent.

Only the selected area of the strawberry photo is visible, while the rest is transparent. The Properties panel is open on the right side of the screen. — The selected area is now masked and ready for feathering.

Step 3: Feather the Edges

Under Global Refinements near the bottom of the Properties panel, find the Feather slider. Drag the slider or input a number between 1 and 100—the higher the number, the more feathered the edges will look.

The Feather slider is set to 45 pixels and the edges of the strawberry image selection are feathered accordingly. — A value of 40-60 typically yields the best result, but you can play around with the slider to find your optimal feathering amount.

When you’re happy with the result, hit OK at the bottom of the panel.

At this point, it will look like the image has reverted back to its original state, but don’t worry—your selection is still feathered, it just needs to be moved to its own layer for the effect to be visible.

Step 4: Copy and Paste the Feathered Selection to a New Layer

Go to Edit > Copy, then Edit > Paste (or use CTRL/Command+C and CTRL/Command+V).

This copies your selection to a new layer. If you hide the original layer, you can clearly see the new image and its feathered edges.

And that’s all there is to it!

The Layers panel is open to the right of the feathered strawberry image, showing that the image exists in a new layer and the original layer is hidden. — The feathered selection now exists in its own layer and is ready to be placed wherever you’d like.

Create Unique Images with Photoshop

Feathering is just one of the many features that make Photoshop an incredible tool for editing photos and adding texture to illustrations. More recent versions have built-in AI capabilities, and you can even use it to edit videos and create GIFs in Photoshop.

If you’re new to photo editing, be sure to familiarize yourself with the basics of Photoshop. And when you’re ready to take full advantage of everything it has to offer, dive into its advanced features and explore unique ways to use it.

Written By

Sayana Lam

Sayana is a musician, writer and graphic designer based in Toronto, Canada.