How to remove border from this coffee cup image when Magic Wand in Photoshop can't?

In Photoshop I've taken Magic Wand as far as I can, I think. Now I'm left with this grayish edge around the coffee saucer. How do I remove it? I've tried altering tolerance in Magic Wand but don't seem able to get it. Any suggestions please?

Answer

It depends a bit on the background of the image, but here's how I usually go about:

• Use Magic Wand and/or Quick Selection tool to do the rough work (play around with the options to see how far you can take it)


• Now expand the Marquee with Select > Modify > Expand and grow your selection by one or two pixels (actual values will depend on how large your original image is, in pixels) The result you're looking for is that you've just selected the first pixel of what you don't want to delete, i.e. the mug in your case.


• Optional: Smooth the selection out with Select > Modify > Smooth


• Now Feather the selection by 1 or two pixels with Select > Modify > Feather


• Now you can hit the delete button

This will give you a nice, soft border that won't clash with any color of background. Admittedly, this works better with hi-res images, since the feathered area will be smaller compared to the total image. In the past, this technique has served me well cutting things out, so I thought I'd share.

Play around with the settings and pixel-values a bit until you're satisfied. (Protip: you can save a result in the history, then go back and experiment. If you can't get a better result, you can go back to your first result.)