Where to find Select Subject’s new Cloud option
There are a few places to access the new Cloud option for Select Subject. You’ll find it in the Options Bar when you have the Object Selection Tool, the Quick Selection Tool or the Magic Wand Tool active. You’ll also find it in the Select and Mask workspace. And as we’ll see at the end of this tutorial, there’s a new category in Photoshop’s Preferences specifically for the Select Subject command.
But the fastest way to try out Select Subject running on the Cloud is from the Options Bar. You’ll need to have either the Object Selection Tool, the Quick Selection Tool or the Magic Wand Tool active.
All three tools are found in the same spot in the toolbar. I’ll choose the Object Selection Tool.
The new Device and Cloud choices
In the Options Bar, click the new arrow next to the Select Subject button.
And here you’ll find two new choices. Device (the default mode) means that Select Subject will use your computer to process the selection. And Cloud will process the selection on Adobe’s servers. Of course, you’ll need to be connected to the internet for it to work.
Let’s quickly run both versions to see which one gives us better results.
The selection results
Adobe claims that choosing Device will give us quicker results. And sure enough, on my computer, it took only a few seconds for Select Subject to analyze the image, look for the main subject(s) and then draw the selection.
But the selection itself, at least with this image, is not that great. Ideally, only the people in the photo would be selected. But in the lower half of the image, most of the background between each person was included in the selection.
If your original selection is still active, click OK in the warning box to tell Photoshop to discard it.
Clicking OK to replace the original selection with the new one.
The selection results
Running Select Subject on the Cloud means that the selection is processed over the internet using Adobe’s servers. So the first thing you’ll notice is that it takes longer. In fact, a progress bar will appear giving you an idea of how much longer you’ll need to wait. This will depend on the speed of your internet connection.
But the wait seems to be worth it. Notice how much better the Cloud version of my selection turned out. In the lower half of the photo, Select Subject was able to do a much better job of selecting the people without selecting the background between them.
Select Subject’s Cloud option in Select and Mask
You can also choose the new Cloud option for Select Subject in Photoshop’s Select and Mask workspace.
With any of Photoshop’s selection tools active, click the Select and Mask button in the Options Bar.
Is Select Subject on the Cloud better for selecting hair?
With all the images I tested, Select Subject running on the Cloud resulted in better selections, at least in areas where the edges were well-defined. But can Adobe’s servers do a better job at selecting fine details like hair? From my tests, the answer is yes… sort of… sometimes. You do get a different hair selection compared to running Select Subject on your computer. But whether or not it’s a better hair selection seems to depend on the image.
The hair selection with Select Subject set to Device
Here’s a close-up of the hair after running Select Subject on my computer. In the Select and Mask workspace, I’ve set the View Mode to Black and the Opacity to 100% so we’re seeing the hair against a black background. Notice how the edges around his hair look fairly sharp and unnatural.
