HI [USER=144769]@BondJamesBond[/USER]
Several things are going on here.
1) Using the Erasure Tool with the Brush setting (not the Pencil setting) and hardness set to 100 still does not give a hard erasure edge. That is the characteristic of Photoshop Brushes (yes, it is misleading when PS says "hard"). If you want a much harder edge, use the Pencil tool option. Remember that if you use a very hard edge for many edges, you will end up with pixel jaggy edges, so there is a tradeoff. I most often use soft edges in my work.
2) Regarding the selection tool, the sample size and the tolerance make a difference in how much is selected. Because of the original image's variations and that you were effectively using a soft erasure edge, the edge pixels gradually change in tone and color. So, one often has to set the tolerance to a higher number.
Here are two screenshots with different selection settings with the associated selection results:
Tolerance 3 with point sample
[ATTACH=full]143168[/ATTACH]
tolerance 32 with 3xsample
[ATTACH=full]143169[/ATTACH]
So, one has to adjust the numbers sometimes in large ways to get the right selection.
The JPEG you provided may not be the exact image your were using yet when I turn up the contrast with a Curves Adjsutment Layer, you can see the edge variations and why the select tool might get confused:
[ATTACH=full]143170[/ATTACH]
I hope this helps some
John Wheeler
