beginner needs help with quick masks

I use quick mask to remove elements out of their backgrounds mostly portrait pictures. I then cut and copy onto a new layer with a new background. My problem is I always end up with a light edges and shadow edges around my picture. I tried feathering my images with no success. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Carol

you can try to make your selection, then go select>modify>contract and set a value of 1 or 2 pixels and see if that cleans up the edge.

Thank you Kranekick. I appreciate your reply. This is a great forum. I grabbed a bunch of tutorials to practice. I checked out your website awesome work! take it easy Carol