Hair masking has long been one of the most tedious tasks in photo compositing — especially when switching between dark and light backgrounds reveals unwanted halos along the edges. Photoshop's new Enhance Edge feature, available in beta 27.11, offers an AI-powered approach to this problem by generating expanded edge data rather than altering the mask itself.
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Practical Tips
Keep these points in mind when deciding whether and how to use Enhance Edge in your workflow.
- Understand what Enhance Edge actually does: it generates new pixel data at the edges of the subject layer without changing the mask, which removes halos but does not improve mask accuracy.
- Avoid using Enhance Edge on high-resolution, fine-detail hair: the AI operates under a resolution limit and can reduce intricate strands to a blurred, flat result — use Filter > Other > Minimum on the mask instead for those cases.
- Use Decontaminate Colors as a free alternative: found in Select and Mask > Output Settings, it performs a similar edge expansion without consuming generative credits, though with less texture and dimension.
- Check your generative credit balance before applying: Enhance Edge currently costs 20 credits per use in the beta; click the starry square icon in the Options bar to review your balance beforehand.
- Repurpose the generated layer to increase hair volume: disabling the mask on the Enhance Edge output layer and compositing it over the original is a quick way to add fullness to hair without affecting the background.
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