Home E-mail Image Bank ⦁ Introduction ⦁1. Getting Started ⦁ Lesson 2 Airbrushing a B&W photo ⦁ Lesson 3 Selection tools ⦁ Lesson 4 Intro to Masking ⦁ Lesson 5 More with Masking

One of the wonderful things Photoshop can do is take bits and pieces of one image and put it into another and make them look like they really belong in the image and not like the cut and paste collages we probably all had to do as kids in school. In order to cut something out of one image and paste it into another you first must “select” it. Photoshop has several tools used for making selections. The next few pages will deal with how the various tools work. As always, I have a few simple exercises to practice with after you learn how the tools work. This section contains the following; • Marquee tools • Wand tool • Lasso tools Easy Selecting Projects to practice with. This first three pages will only go over the three main selection tools and how they work. Links to all three pages are at the bottom of each if you need to go back and re read something. To follow along, open any image in Photoshop. It doesn’t matter which one, this is just tool practice. We’ll do some practice projects a little later on. Ready? Look at your tool palette. Photoshop has so many different tools that to save space several may be located in the same space on your tool palette. Find the selection tool in the upper left of your tool box and hold your mouse button down on that tool. It brings up a list of tools hidden there. This one has an oval, a rectangle, and two line tools. (Personally I have never found a use for the line tools but if you do, this is where they are.) Lets practice with the marquee tools. Pick one of your selection marquee tools. Either the oval or rectangle. They both work the same. Now click and drag on your image to make a “selection.” When you let go of the mouse, you will see moving, or what I call “dancing” dotted lines marking your selection. Once you have a selection, you can now copy and paste it into another image. Either use your menu bar under EDIT/COPY then go to another image and EDIT/PASTE. Or... switch to your MOVE tool. (upper right) and just grab your selection and move it. If you have two images open on your computer desktop, you can simply move that selection right across to the other image. It automatically pastes it there. NOTE; Any time you paste, Photoshop automatically creates a new layer and pasts into it. This allows you to move or resize your pasted bit without effecting anything else. There are a few key commands used with this tool that you absolutely must learn. Write them down and practice practice practice until this becomes habit. Practice with the following keys as you make selections. BUT... do NOT let go of the mouse until you are done. Once you do, your selection is set and you can’t change it. All you can do is deselect and try again. To deselect, go to your menu bar under SELECT/DESELECT. Try to learn the shortcut for this one. You will use it a lot! Notice that when you make a selection, you start at one corner of an imaginary box around what your trying to select and drag to the opposite corner. There will be times when selecting from the center out is more desirable. Try holding down your OPTION/ALT key while making a selection. That key lets you draw from the center out. Next, make a selection and try holding the SHIFT key. This one forces your rectangle to be a perfect square. Your oval, will make a perfect circle. NOTE; This is a pretty universal trick. Just about any computer program that has a circle or square tool will react the same with the shift key. This is also known as “constraining” an image. We will go over this again later when it comes time to resize an image without squashing it. Finally, if you make a selection and it’s just not quite on target, hold your SPACEBAR and move the entire selection. Let go of the space bar and you may continue to adjust your selection shape or size. Lets recap; OPTION/ALT lets you make a selection from the center out. SHIFT forces, or constrains your selection to perfect square, or circle. SPACE BAR lets you move your selection around. Again, you must be holding the mouse button down until your selection is right where you want it. Then, and remember this, let go of the mouse first. Then your keys. When your ready, click on the NEXT PAGE Or use the navigation below. In this section • Marquee tools • Wand tool • Lasso tools Easy Selecting Projects to practice with.