Photoshop has three tools for making selections: The Marquee, Lasso and the Magic Wand. When I run courses on Photoshop, tools like the magic wand a...
Photoshop has three tools for making selections: The Marquee, Lasso and the Magic Wand. When I run courses on Photoshop, tools like the magic wand and the clone tools are usually the ones which everyone finds the easiest to start using because they give such immediate results. The Magic Wand works by selecting colours within the image adjacent and similar to any pixel that you click on. Pixels of dissimilar colour act as barriers to selection and so the selection ripples outwards from the point you click on.
Naturally, it’s quite rare to get a “hole in one” when you are using the magic wand to make selections. Typically, you will select part of the area that you want and you will then need to add and subtract from the selection, perhaps switching to the other selection tools from time to time. Photoshop offers you two ways of modifying a selection: you can either use modifier keys on you keyboard or activate the modifier icons on the options panel normally displayed below your menu bar.
To add more pixels to your selection, hold down the Shift key while clicking with the Magic Wand on a part of the image which is not yet selected. To subtract from the selection, hold down the Alt key and click on the part of the selection which you wish to deselect. The selection modifier icons are situated on the left of the options panel. There are four of them: new selection, add to selection, subtract from selection and select intersection. These icons effectively allow you to change selection mode on a permanent basis. Thus, for example, you could click on the second of the four icons when using the Magic Wand and click continually on different parts of a subject until it was completely selected.
Sometimes, you can benefit from the Magic Wand’s ability to select areas of uniform colour even if your subject does not contain uniform areas of colour. Say, for example, you want to select a subject against a uniform background such as a wall or the sky, a simple trick is to use the magic wand to select the background and then invert the selection by choosing Select – Inverse. A slight variation on this technique is to make a rough selection which completely encloses the subject as well some of the background and then to use the Magic Wand in subtract mode to remove the background from the selection.
Sometimes, you will find that the Magic Wand either selects too many or too few pixels for your purposes. The number of pixels which the Magic Wand selects when you click on part of the image can be controlled by changing a setting called tolerance. Tolerance determines how far a pixel can vary from the pixel that you click on and still be included in the selection. The default tolerance is 32 and the maximum is 255.
To learn more about Adobe Photoshop training courses, visit , an independent IT training web site offering in London and throughout the UK.
There are three main tools for making selections in Adobe Photoshop: the Marquee, the Magic Wand and the Lasso. The Lasso is one of those tools with several options. To reveal the different modes it offers, click on the tool and hold. The three different modes of the Lasso are freehand, polygonal and magnetic.
Freehand mode, as you can probably imagine, puts the onus on the user to manually trace the shape of the area to be selected. If using a mouse, it requires a steady hand; not to mention a decent mouse. This mode works best if used in conjunction with a graphic tablet where the mouse is replaced with a pressure-sensitive pen.
The polygonal Lasso is used for drawing polygons, shapes made up of straight lines. This tool is great for selected elements in an image which have straight edges, such as boxed products, pillars and buildings. Unlike the freehand Lasso, where you hold the mouse button down as you outline the area to be selected, with the polygonal Lasso you simply click repeated around the area to be selected and Photoshop joins the points you click on.
The magnetic Lasso is the cleverest variation that the Lasso tool offers. In this mode, Photoshop recognises edges within the image automatically and creates a shape as you move the cursor around the area to be selected. It creates the shape by automatically placing points around the area to be selected. You can also click yourself to add points if Photoshop occasionally doesn’t seem to understand where you want the points to be placed. If Photoshop plain gets it wrong and places a point where it’s not suppose to be, just press the Backspace key to remove the point and the segment of the path that comes after it.
Regardless of which Lasso tool you use, Photoshop offers two ways to close and complete the selection. The first method is to click on the point you started from. To make this a little easier to achieve, when you position the cursor in exactly the right place, Photoshop displays a tiny circle next to the cursor. The second method is to double-click at any point. This technique causes Photoshop to unceremoniously close the shape by drawing a straight line from the point on which you double-click back to the point you started from.
To learn more about Adobe Photoshop training courses, visit , an independent IT training web site offering in London and throughout the UK.
With the sheer number of software programs available to us, knowing which product is the right one can be quite a task. I have a feeling that many people steer away from learning how to use new software because the whole selection process can be so intimidating. If you’re new to the wonderful world of digital editing and compositing, you need look no further: Photoshop is the industry leader, no matter what your specific field of interest might be. Photoshop is the software of choice for professional designers, as well as for amateur photographers and You Tubers.
One of the nicest things about Photoshop is that the user interface has changed little over the years, which makes it easy to upgrade from earlier versions. If you have learned how to use a version like Photoshop 6, check out the upgrades available for Photoshop CS4. Then sign up for advanced Photoshop training to see how CS4 can help you reach your full potential.
If you’re just starting to experiment with online video and digital imaging or if you are a novice photographer, a good place to start is Photoshop Album Starter Edition 3. This software is free, so it’s a great way to learn the fundamentals of digital photography. It will teach you all the basics about how to view, manage, correct, and share your photos online. Photoshop training will teach you how to fix common problems with a single click, and then you can use Photoshop Album Starter to send your digital photos to mobile handsets. The best thing about Photoshop Album Starter is that it’s a fully functional download-it’s not a trial evaluation download that will be restricted or limited after an initial period. Photoshop is dedicated software-the choice for professionals in a broad variety of fields. But Photoshop training makes it easy for novices to start creating professional designs and visual effects with Photoshop CS4. To get the best results in the least amount of time, sign up for an online Photoshop training course that will show you how to do things you didn’t know were possible.
Attending an advanced Photoshop training course will equip you with the knowledge to create complex images; it will teach you all the skills you need to master digital image creation, editing, and compositing. One of the best things about Photoshop CS4 training is that it shows experienced users how to quickly solve old problems with new tools and techniques. Advanced Photoshop training will give you new techniques for solving problems like image selection and image correction.
If you’ve been using an earlier version of Photoshop, check out the upgrades available and sign up for an advanced Photoshop CS4 training course. Advanced Photoshop training will teach you how to:
- Achieve more professional results with layers, gradients, and other tools. – Use advanced color correction techniques. – Enhance images with layer masks. – Master the tools and skills necessary for creating professional composite images.
So, what are you waiting for? Sign up today for the Photoshop training course that’s right for you.
The writer of this article is a developer and trainer with an independent computer training company offering as well as at their central London training centre.
If you want to learn how to get the most out of your photos, the right Photoshop training for you is Adobe Photoshop Elements 5. Photoshop Elements lets you easily correct flaws and adjust color and lighting in digital photos; arrange your photos in layouts that let you set up Internet photo galleries created with Flash technology; and view all your videos and stills in one place. At a price around U.S. $100, Photoshop Elements is a great place to start if you’re interested in mastering the art of digital editing and compositing.
If you enjoy playing around with video and photos on the Internet, Photoshop training can take your hobby to the level of professional excellence and quality. Online self-study courses with instructor-guided training are a tremendously effective and fun way to master Photoshop skills in a hurry. If you’re just getting into photography or videography, Photoshop training is the most powerful path to career success and personal fulfillment.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 5 provides the tools you need to correct, enhance, organize, and share your photographs. Photoshop Elements 5 training will introduce you to the interface or welcome screen, the browser that acts as the pathway into the whole package; the organizer, or file-management tool; and the editor, used to correct lighting, resize images, and remove red eye. Photoshop Elements 5 also lets you put together professional-quality slide shows and build digital scrapbooks.
One of the most complex tasks facing novice photographers is color correction. By using the Adjust Color Curves tool, it’s easy to correct common color problems with Photoshop Elements 5. The amazing thing about Photoshop is how much it can do. I love to jump into a new program and feel my way around, experimenting to see what I can do. But without Photoshop training I quickly reach a barrier where my intuition and experience cannot help me from running up against the same problems over and over-I don’t know what to do when the color is wrong, the photo looks drab compared to colors in the photographed scene, or an exposure problem makes the photo look too dark or too light.
Photoshop training teaches you everything you need to know to create professional images: how to create special effects, how to sharpen the contrast of your photos, and how to correct common problems like color halos and digital noise.
The author is a training consultant with , an independent computer training company offering at their central London training centre.
