You can quickly refine a mask with the Photoshop CS4 Masks panel. This can be very helpful for adjusting the effect of sharpening with an edge mask or noise reduction with a surface mask.

Here's a sample photograph. The TLR Landscape Sharpener was applied. To that, an edge mask was applied.

The Masks panel has settings to make basic adjustments to the mask. You can drag the Density or Feather slider.

More control is available by clicking the Mask Edge . . . button on the Masks panel. That will open up the Refine Mask dialog. If you're familiar with the Select|Refine Edges dialog, the same options are available with Refine Mask.

Refine Mask gives you lots of power for refining layer masks. You can, for example, adjust the contrast of the mask, feather it for smoother transitions, or even make the mask more "gooey" with the Smooth slider.

You can even change the preview to use Quick Mask mode or the "marching ants" of a traditional Photoshop selection.

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