Selecting is the most basic technique you will use when working with Photoshop. Different shapes, objects, and images require different tools. The various selection tools include: the marquee tools, the magic wand, or Color Range (from the Select menu).

When you pick a selection tool from the toolbox, the first thing you should do is check its options bar. The settings most recently used will still be active. At the left end of the bar are buttons which will determine how the new selection will interact with any currently active selection.

Quick Start Instructions for Selection Tools

More detailed instructions are available below.

Selecting Image Subset

• Select (Menu)
• Magic Wand (Tool Bar)
• Marquee Tools (Tool Bar)
• Lasso Tools (Tool Bar)
  
  • Lasso
  • Polygonal Lasso
  • Magnetic Lasso
• Extract Filter > Extract
• Quick Mask Mode
• Switch color X

Selection Options

• Anti-alias - Select > Feather
• Deselect - Select > Deselect (shortcut: Ctrl+D)
• Feather - Select > Feather
• Inverse - Select > Inverse
• Grow - Select > Grow
• Similar - Select > Similar

Other

• Crosshair - Caps Lock
• Show/Hide - Ctrl+H

Detailed Selection Tools Tutorial

Main Menu Bar

Tool Bar/Toolbox

Magic Wand Tool

The Magic Wand tool is used to select areas of an image based on its color. To use the Magic Wand Tool:

1. Select the Magic Wand Tool from the Toolbox (see above).
2. Set the desired options in the Options Bar
   
   • Create a new selection
   • Add to an existing selection
   • Subtract from an existing selection
   • Intersect with the existing selection
3. Click the color you want to select.

Frequently, after the initial click, additions are made to that selection by holding down the Shift key (or picking the "Add to Selection" button), and clicking repeatedly on additional shades that did not get selected.

This tool is useful if you have very evenly colored objects, or if you wish to make a selection in order to edit hue, saturation, or brightness of a color which is intermixed with colors you don't want to change.

Note: The magic wand uses the sample size setting currently selected on the eyedropper tool's options bar. Be aware that the magic wand does not make partial selections. It's all or nothing.

One of the first problems you may discover with the Magic Wand tool is that clicking in an area doesn't always produce a uniform selection. Instead, you may get many little selection "areas" that pop up randomly within the initial selection. This happens because of a difference in color value from the starting point pixels and the pixels that make up these "islands."

You can resolve this issue several ways. You could add all of the individual "areas" with the Magic Wand tool until they are all included in the selection, but this is not the most efficient way to resolve the problem. Try choosing Select > Similar; or try increasing the Tolerance setting, and reselect the same area again. The Contiguous option on the Options bar also acts in the same manner as Select > Similar when Contiguous is checked. The selection will stop when it bumps up against pixels of different colors. When Contiguous is unchecked, the selection will include all similar colors within the image or within the layer (which brings us to another option to consider). When the Use All Layers option is checked, the selection is based on the entire image. When Use All Layers is unchecked, the selection is based on the image information of the active layer only.

Keep in mind that sometimes the selection "islands" are a result of areas that are vastly different in color. In this case, (if you still want these "islands" to be included in the selection), choose a Marquee or Lasso tool, and hold down the Shift key (Add to selection) while making a selection shape over the "islands." That should resolve the issue.

Something else worth mentioning: when you use Select > Similar to add to a selection, another problem could arise. If the selection goes too far into the part of the image that you don't want selected (especially at the edge of an object), there is another trick to consider. Did you know that when you use Similar, Photoshop uses the current Tolerance setting to determine which pixels can be included in the selection? This means that after you do an initial selection with the Magic Wand tool (at a Tolerance level of 32, for example), you can set the Tolerance option to a lower value (try somewhere between 4-8) before going to the Select > Similar menu. Then colors that are much closer to the original starting point will be the only ones added to the original selection.

The keyboard shortcut for this tool is the letter W.

Magic Wand Options Bar

Tolerance

The Tolerance value sets how much variation for the clicked color is to be included in a selection. Enter a value from 0 to 255 in the Tolerance box. A low number will let you select colors very similar to the pixel you click; a high number will let you select a broader range of colors.

Anti-aliasing

Anti-aliasing softens the jagged [pixel] edges on curvy portions of selections. You can uncheck anti-alias for a shape which has only vertical and horizontal lines, if you like. The rectangular marquee tool is the only one that does not offer anti-aliasing. Anti-aliasing is not necessary on perfectly horizontal or vertical lines.

Contiguous

The Magic Wand Tool lets you select areas of an image based on similar shades of color simply by clicking on the desired color. If Contiguous is not selected, all pixels that are the same color as the selected pixel will be selected, wherever they occur in the image. Otherwise, only adjacent pixels will be selected.

Use All Layers

If this box is checked, the Tolerance settings will "look at" all layers to decide where to draw the selection outline.

Marquee Tools

Marquee tools allow you select rectangles, ellipses, and 1-pixel-wide rows/columns.

To use the marquee tools:

1. Select a marquee tool:
   
   • Rectangular (rectangular selection)
   • Elliptical (elliptically shaped selection)
   • Single Row (one-pixel wide row)
   • Single Column (one-pixel wide column)
2. Set options in the Options Bar.
3. Drag over the area to select. Hold down the Shift key if you want to constrain the selection to a square or a circle.
4. Add/subtract to/from selection - click "Add to Selection" or "Subtract from Selection" buttons on the upper left of the Photoshop screen.

Selection elements - used with most Selection tools

• Grow: Select > Grow
  The current selection will grow by the number of pixels indicated. It is useful sometimes, but it may grow too much for your images and the work you need to do. Try it - see for yourself. It works off of the current layer - so using the magic wand tool and increasing Tolerance might be a better way.
• Similar: Select > Similar
  This is generally more useful than grow. It is much like clicking on Contiguous when you make your first selection. It selects similar areas, it works off of the current layer only.
• Feather: Select > Feather
  This modification is also similar to an option of the Magic Wand tool; however, it may be beneficial even if it is used with counterpart to start with. It is basically like Anti-aliased, but it gives you control after the fact, and can even improve what Anti-aliased does in preventing hard lines. It allows you to determine the pixel radius for feathering. Feathering is like taking a hard edge and softening it so it fades away.

Lasso Tools

Polygonal Lasso Tool

Think of the Lasso Tool and the Polygonal Lasso Tool as opposites of each other. One (the Lasso Tool) usually does freehand selections, but can be forced to make straight lines by holding down the Alt key, while the other (the Polygonal Lasso Tool) does straight line selections, but can be forced to do freehand by holding down the Alt key.

To use the tool:

1. Select the Polygonal Lasso Tool from the Toolbox.
2. Set any desired options in the Options Bar.
3. To draw a straight-edged segment of the selection, click at the desired beginning and end points of the segment.
4. To draw a freehand segment of the selection, hold down the Alt key and drag the mouse.
5. To close the selection border, double-click the mouse button.

Lasso Tool

1. Select the Lasso Tool from the Toolbox.
2. Set any desired options in the Options Bar.
3. To draw a freehand segment of the selection, simply drag the mouse.
4. To draw a straight-edged segment of the selection, hold down the Alt key and click at the desired beginning and end points of the segment.
5. To close the selection border, let go of the mouse button (without holding down the Alt key).

Magnetic Lasso Tool

1. Select the Magnetic Lasso Tool from the Toolbox.
2. Set any desired options in the Options Bar.
3. Click to set the first endpoint of the selection.
4. To draw a freehand segment, move the mouse pointer along the edge you want to trace. (You don't have to hold down the mouse button, although you can if you like.)
5. As you move the pointer, the selection will automatically snap to the strongest edge in the area around the pointer, based on the Width set in the Options Bar. Periodically, intermediate points are added to the selection border. While tracing the edge, click to add a point if needed.
6. If you want to switch to either the regular Lasso Tool or the Polygonal Lasso Tool, hold down the Alt key. At that point, dragging the mouse will let you draw freehand borders; clicking will let you draw straight line segments.
7. Close the selection border by double-clicking the mouse.

Extract Tool

Use Extract to make some difficult selections that require a sophisticated way to isolate a foreground object from the background. It's best suited for objects with wispy, intricate, or undefined edges that need to be clipped from their backgrounds. Generally use Extract with layers. Extract deletes the unwanted portions of the image.

• Filter > Extract

The Extract window appears with the edge highlighter tool selected in the upper left area of the dialog box. The Extract process is straight forward:

• Highlight the edges of the subject to be modified or removed
• Define the object's interior with a special magic color
• Preview

You can refine and touch up selections to your liking, but most of the time the tool is accurate.

Outlining

Get started by setting the brush size for the edge highlighter tool to about 6 in the Brush Size box. The fatter the brush, the more touch-up you'll have to do, although the fatter brushes make for easy (and sloppy) selections. Start with a large brush to outline a general selection, and then switch to a finer brush for the touch-up work. Note in some areas of the green you see a hairline thin yellow line. That's the selection zone.

Draw the outline highlight slightly overlap both foreground and background areas around the edge you want to cut - that's the way Extract makes its selection! It looks for the difference in contrast between pixels in the selected zone.

Fill Bucket

Once the outline is drawn, click the "Fill Bucket" and click inside the object to fill within the selection. The default Fill color is bright blue, and the highlight color is green - you can change those.

Preview

In a perfect world, your extraction will be perfect. But just in case it isn't, you'll need some touch-up

Click the Preview button and, presto, highlighted, extracted subject. At the bottom right of the work window you can select various preview options. Here we just see the checker-board background.

To refine a selection, or make corrections, use the other tools to paint-in or paint-out image as needed. Suggest you make the background "white" so you can see where the inaccurate selections are. Use the eraser tool to eliminate faults. Once it is right, click OK to apply extraction.

Finish - Blur the background?

All the background has been trimmed from the subject. If you want to blur the background of the image, activate the selection.

• Ctrl-Click the layer name activates selection
• Click in the original image layer
• Choose Select > Inverse
• Hide the ants Ctrl+H
• Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur - adjust to taste
  

Watch as the background softens, simulating a narrow depth of field photo. Now the subject pops forward, and becomes the prominent focal point. You can play other tricks with both the subject and the background selectable.

Quick Mask Mode

We are always looking for ways to "cut" something or someone from a photo, or place the person against a different background. We are also looking for ways to colorize a portion of a photo. The trick is in how to select the person, or area of the photo, so that you can manipulate it.

We will discuss the Quick Mask method, though, which some find easiest while still being powerful.

Set the default foreground/background colors by clicking on the small black and white squares icon to the lower left of the current foreground/background colors icon. This will make the foreground color black and the background color white.

Set the Quick Mask mode by clicking on the Quick Mask icon.

With the Quick Mask on you can "paint" a mask which will be turned into a selection once you return to Standard Mode. Painting a mask is as simple as selecting the Paintbrush tool or the Pencil tool. Drawing with black will paint the mask on and drawing in white will remove the mask.

Using this method you can quickly fill large areas by using a large Paintbrush. To get into the detailed areas you should zoom in and paint with a smaller brush or pencil.

"What if you color outside of the lines?" Just switch the foreground and background colors (the small, rounded, two-headed arrow in the upper-right of the foreground color, background color icon). With white as the current color you'll be removing the mask, and this has no effect on your photo!

When you're done painting a mask, you can return to standard mode.

If you have chosen, or painted, the wrong area, instead of painting and masking out the subject, you may have masked out, or selected, the area around the subject. Using Select > Inverse, the subject will be selected.

Edit > Copy will move the subject to the clipboard. You can then fill the background layer with white. Edit > Paste will move the subject to a new layer above the background. Then you can apply any effects you like. You can paste the subject over any background you want and it can look real.

Another technique: Use Quick Mask to isolate a portion of a photo and desaturate. By doing this you will make most of the image black & white while leaving a portion unchanged. This look can be accomplished in a matter of minutes.

This same method can be used to isolate portions of a black & white photograph which can be colorized. This may be a long process but worth the effort. You can also save selected areas that are created with Quick Mask.

Once you've made a selection using Quick Mask, you're limited only by your imagination.