Adobe Releases Update to Photoshop CC, Includes Powerful New Selection Tool

Today, Adobe has released Photoshop CC 19.1 with some major improvements and new features that are sure to please a lot of photographers. Check out what's new!

In addition to the normal bug fixes, today's release also brings the following:

  • Windows High Density Monitor Support: The Photoshop UI can now be scaled from 100 percent to 400 percent in 25-percent increments. The ability is per monitor, meaning something like a high-density laptop screen can be zoomed appropriately to work together with an attached monitor. Photoshop will automatically adjust itself based on Windows settings.
  • Select Subject: Taking advantage of machine learning, this feature is meant to provide a better base selection (before refinement) even with more complex backgrounds. This should be particularly helpful for compositing or simply creating layer masks. Once the initial selection has been made, you can then refine it using the normal tools. You can see a preview of the feature in the video above. 
  • Select and Mask: The "Decontaminate Color" feature has been brought over from the Refine Edge Tool to the Select and Mask dialog, allowing one to remove color overflow from selections with greater ease. 

You can read about the full range of updates in the Adobe blog.

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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9 Comments

How about giving the option to, instead of having only running ants as selection, having pen-tool path as selection. Imagine using this tool, having a path to work with using this one-click tech, and it being editable using the pen-tool, before going through the final, running-ants selection part. #mytwocents

Thanks Adobe, 2018 and 4K finally supported on Windows! wow! =)

For the past couple of years (or more) we see Adobe adds all kind of features to Photoshop and Lightroom and our apps are slowing down at the same rate. Many times Photoshop and Lightroom are practically unusable. Many times a computer startup is required.

Reading Adobe forums it seems Adobe does not really care for performance problems, they just pile up features.

Anyone experiencing a slow Select & Refine? Sliders take about a minute to show the adjustment and my laptop's fan is taking off for flight.

It's not a bug, it's a feature. Just charge by the hour...

I did for sure. The refine tool works quickly still if all the other sliders are at their default position.

More monkeys on the production line...

I used it yesterday for about three hours and I'm glad to have it, but almost everything needed some very intense refinement. I'm not sure yet it will be faster than what I'm already doing right now.