Freelance Photographer Adobe Tools Tutorial

Selection tools...

Adobe offer you three main selection tools, the Marquee tool, Magic Wand tool and Lasso tool, so I have grouped them all together on this one page...
All three selection options give you another four options of how you would like these selections to interact with each other and themselves... I have colour coded the options in the image on the right to make it easier to refer to... I will also demonstrate how these options can be used further down the page...

• The icon marked in RED is the NEW selection option and if you have this selected every time you start a new selection the old one will disappear...

• The icon marked in GREEN is the ADD TO option and if you have this selected every time you start a new selection it will keep the old selection and add to it...

• The icon marked in YELLOW is the SUBTRACT FROM option and if you have this selected every time you start a new selection that intersects any other selection it will subtract the parts that intersect/overlap...

• The icon marked in BLUE is the INTERSCT WITH option and if you have this selected every time you start a new selection that intersects any other selection it will keep only the parts that overlap...

All of these selection tools can be used together and the only thing to remember is when you change the selection tool CHECK that the option you wish to use is also selected because when you change tools the selection option is not always the same...

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Marquee tool... (M shortcut key)


When you click and hold on the Marquee tool icon in Photoshop a sub menu is displayed offering you four choices of marquee tools... Their names are self explanatory and the choice of tools are Rectangular...
Elliptical ...
Single Row...
Single Column...


When you select either the Rectangular or Elliptical marquee tools you are offered three style options in the tool bar, which can be seen in the image on the right...
• Normal... This is a freestyle option where you can draw the selection to any dimensions...

• Fixed Aspect Ratio... This lets you decide the ratio between the vertical and horizontal... As you can see this is set at 1:1, which would make a perfect square or circle depending on the tool selected... If you wanted the selection to be twice as wide as it is high you would set the width to 2 and the height to 1...

• Fixed Size... This lets you type in the exact width and height dimensions of the selection...

Quick Tips:-

• If you hold down the shift key while making your selection with either the rectangular or elliptical marquee tools in normal mode it will ensure a perfectly symmetrical shape (square/circle)...

• If you hold down the space-bar you can click and drag the selection wherever you want it...

With the Rectangular or Elliptical marquee tools you are also offered the option of feathering the selection, which blurs the edges to prevent you seeing the join, the greater the feathering number the softer the edge...

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Lasso tool... (L shortcut key)
When you click on the Lasso tool icon a sub menu appears offering you three choices of lasso tools, the Lasso tool, Polygonal Lasso tool and the Magnetic lasso tool...

• The Lasso tool is mainly used for creating rough selections around an object where accuracy isn't of great importance, you merely click and hold down the left mouse button and draw round the subject you wish to select... You then let go of the mouse button and the selection is complete...

• The Polygonal Lasso tool makes selections via straight lines... You click and let go of the left mouse button at the point you want your selection to start and move the mouse to draw a straight line... when you want to change direction you merely click and let go of the left mouse button and alter direction... When you have finished your selection you just double click the left mouse button...

• The Magnetic Lasso tool clings to the edges of colours of very similar contrast allowing you to draw very accurately round an object... When this tool is selected the options bar changes to the one below...

You have the choice of feathering which helps hide the sharp edges, Anti-aliased to stop that jagged effect on diagonal lines and curves, Edge contrast which detemines the percentage of contrast the tool will follow, the frequency at which it lays down its anchor points and pen pressure in case you are using a graphics tablet...

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Magic Wand tool... (W shortcut key)

The magic wand tool is very effective for selecting large areas of very similar colour...
All you have to do is click on the colour you wish to select, and the magic wand will select all that colour within the image depending on the settings in the menu bar...

There are two options that appear on the menu bar that are exclusive to the magic wand tool...

The first option is Tolerance (shown in green on the image above)...
This allows you to set the amount of tolerance that Photoshop will allow your selection to be from the point on which you click... The smaller this number is, the more accurate the choice of colour will be to point of colour where you clicked... The larger this number, the more likely Photoshop is to select colours of very similar shades or hue to the colour at the point where you clicked...

The second choice is Contiguous (shown in red on the image above)...
This checkbox determines whether the colour slected, is only selected if the colour/s are joined together (contiguous)... If you wish to select all samples of the colour within the image uncheck the checkbox... If you wish to only select those selected colours that are joined together then make sure the checkbox is selected...

Sample All Layers allows you to take the sample from all of the layers you may have open at the time...

Quick Selection Tool... This new tool available in CS3 found under the magic wand tool, allows you to move the tool over your image, selecting all the colours you pass it over, within the restrictions set by the tolerance and contiguous options described above...