Here are 4 quick tips for making selections in Photoshop: how to move a selection marquee after making it, how to reshape the selection marquee to better fit the object you want to select, how to combine two selection marquees, and selecting the unwanted area first before inverting the selection.
Sometimes, it may be easier to select the UNWANTED portion of the photo first.
The dark backlit statue is lightened up without blowing up the background sky
After making global adjustments (such as overall contrast/brightness and colour balance) that apply to the entire photo, we usually want to apply corrections/enhancements/special-effects only to certain parts of the photo. To do that, we need to select the relevant portions of the photo first.
My article in Digital Life on 19 May (Making the right selection) illustrated the use of Photoshop’s simplest selection tools – the Rectangular and Elliptical Marquee tools. Below are 4 handy tips when using any of Photoshop’s selection tools to make selections:
Moving a selection marquee after you’ve drawn it
As long as a selection tool is selected, just move the cursor inside the selection marquee (selection outline that resembles marching ants) and drag. You will only move the selection marquee and not the pixels enclosed.
Transform the selection marquee but not the contents
Likewise, to transform only the selection marquee without altering the pixels within, choose Select > Transform Selection from the main menu. The standard transformation box with handles appear around the selection marquee. You can resize, rotate, skew, shear and move the selection marquee until it fits exactly the object you want to select, without changing any pixels. Press Enter when you are satisfied with the selection.
Combining two selections
To add to the current selection, hold down the Shift key while making the second selection. To subtract from the current selection, hold down the Alt key (Windows) or Option key (Mac). To get the intersection of the two selections, hold down the Alt/Option and Shift keys while making the second selection. These choices are also available as buttons on the left end of the Options bar as well.
Selecting the opposite
Sometimes it is easier to select the unwanted area of the photo than the wanted area of the photo. For instance, we want to select the statue in the photo above with a complex outline against a clear blue sky. Select the unwanted area first (use the Lasso tool on the sky with a single click) and then press Shift-Ctrl I (or Select > Inverse) to switch the selection around – so that what was previously selected becomes unselected while whatever was previously unselected becomes selected. Now we can lighten up only the underexposed statue with a Curves Adjustment Layer.
With a little practice, these little techniques will become second nature to you whenever you make selections.
Tags: image editor, photo editor, Photoshop, tips