MAKING SELECTIONS

Much of the time, before you can do anything to an image (or a portion of an image) in Photoshop, you must first make a selection. The tool you use depends on the type of selection you want to make.

MARQUEE TOOLS

The most basic of all the selection tools is the Marquee tool. The Marquee tool is located at the top left corner of the toolbox. You can access it by clicking on its icon or by hitting the M key. When you click and hold on the Marquee tool icon in the toolbox, notice that four more tools emerge, including the Elliptical Marquee tool, which is used to create circular or oval selections:

To make a selection with the Marquee tool, just drag across the portion of the image you want to select while holding down the mouse button. Once you release the mouse, your selection will be surrounded by flickering dashed lines (also referred to as "marching ants").

Double-click on the Marquee tool in the toolbox to access the Marquee Options palette where you can specify a Feather and Anti-Aliased (for the Elliptical Marquee tool only) setting:

•To create a selection that is perfectly square or round, hold down the Shift key as you drag around the area you want to select.

•To create a selection that extends outward from its center, hold down the Option key (Alt key for Windows) as you drag.

•If you want to move the selection, click and hold inside the selection border, and drag it to where you want it.

LASSO TOOLS

The Lasso tool is used for making freehand selections. To access the Lasso tool, click on the Lasso tool icon in the toolbox or hit the L key. To access the Polygon Lasso tool, click and hold on the Lasso tool icon in the toolbox:

With the Lasso tool selected, you can trace around the portion of the image you want to select to create a freehand selection border. By holding down the Option key (Alt key for Windows), you can click around the area you want to select, rather than drag, giving you more control. Double-click on the Lasso tool icon in the toolbox to bring up the Lasso Options palette where you can specify a Feather and Anti-Aliased setting.

The Polygon Lasso is used to draw straight-edge selections. Click once where you want the selection to begin. Move your cursor to the next selection point and click again. Continue in this fashion until you have enclosed the portion of the image you want to select within the selection border. Double-click on the Polygon Lasso tool icon in the toolbox to bring up the Polygon Lasso Options palette where you can specify a Feather and Anti-Aliased setting.

MAGIC WAND TOOL

The Magic Wand tool works a little differently than the other selection tools. Use it to select portions of an image that are of the same color range.

You can access the Magic Wand tool by clicking on its icon in the toolbox or by hitting the W key:

Double-click on the Magic Wand icon in the toolbox to bring up the Magic Wand Options palette:

This is where you set a Tolerance for your selection — any value between 0 and 255. With a high Tolerance setting, more gradations of color within that particular color range will be selected, and as such, a larger area of the image.

For example, say I want to select the middle stripe on this image of a fish so I can change its color. With the Magic Wand tool selected and a Tolerance of 70 set in the Magic Wand Options palette, I click once on the stripe to select it:

If you want to select more than one portion of an image (perhaps another stripe), just hold down the Shift key as you click with the Magic Wand tool on the next portion of the image you want to select.

COLOR RANGE

Another handy way of making selections based on color is the Color Range command. Under the Select menu, choose Color Range and the following dialog box will appear:

Under the Select drop-down menu, you can select a color range by Sampled Color, Highlights, Midtones, etc.

With Sampled Color, use the eyedropper to click on the representation of the image in the dialog box to select a color range. The Fuzziness bar works much like the Tolerance setting of the Magic Wand — the higher the value, the more gradations of color within that particular color range will be selected.

ALTERING SELECTIONS

When making selections, the following commands also come in handy. They are located under the Select menu, but it is always easier to use the keyboard shortcuts:

Select All: Selects the entire image
Command A for Macintosh (Control A for Windows) or
Select menu > All

Deselect: Deselects what you have selected
Command D for Macintosh (Control D for Windows) or
Select menu > Deselect

Reselect: Reselects what you have just deselected (the oops command)
Command Shift D for Macintosh (Control Shift D for Windows) or
Select menu > Reselect

Inverse: Inverses your selection
Command Shift I for Macintosh (Control Shift I for Windows) or
Select menu > Inverse

Hide Edges: Hides the flickering dashed selection border
Command H for Macintosh (Control H for Windows)

To add to a selection you've just made with the Marquee, Lasso or Magic Wand tool, just hold down the Shift key and make another selection. To subtract from a selection, hold down the Option key (Alt key for Windows), and select the portion of the selection you want to deselect.

You can Expand and Contract a selection under the Select menu, choose Modify.

Also under the Select menu, the Grow and Similar commands allow you to add to an existing selection. Grow works in conjunction with the Tolerance setting of the Magic Wand tool. For instance, if you select a portion of an image using the Magic Wand tool with a Tolerance of 40 set in the Magic Wand Options palette, you can easily increase the selection area by choosing Grow from the Select menu. Basically, you are doubling your Tolerance without returning to the Magic Wand Options palette. When you choose Similar from the Select menu, all other portions of the image that share the same color range will be selected.