Master Selection Tools

In
Photoshop
Course about Selection Tools and
Techniques

First part of Master selection and masking techniques

Series

Svetlana Gajic
Copyright 2016 Svetlana Gajic
This book is designed for educational and informational purposes only.

Adobe and Photoshop are registered trademarks of Adobe System Incorporated in the
United States and/or other countries.
This material is not approved or sponsored by Adobe System Incorporated.
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THIS PRODUCT IS NOT AUTHORIZED, ENDORSED OR SPONSORED BY ADOBE SYSTEMS

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Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Basic Photoshop commands
Chapter 2: What are selections?
Selection tools
Chapter 3: Marquee Tools- Introduction
Chapter 4: Rectangular Marquee Tool
Chapter 5: Elliptical Marquee tool
Single Raw Marquee Tool and Single Column Marquee Tool
Chapter 6: Marquee tools conclusion
Chapter 7: Lasso Tools
Chapter 8: Polygonal Lasso Tool
Chapter 9: Magnetic Lasso Tool
Chapter 10: Lasso Tools- Conclusion
Chapter 11: Move tool, copy and paste selections, transform selections
Transform selection
Chapter 12: Quick Selection Tool
Chapter 13: Magic Wand
Chapter 14: Color Range
Chapter 15: Quick selection tools and Color Range Conclusion
Chapter 16: Refine Edge
Chapter 17: Pen tool-Introduction
Drawing straight lines with Pen tool
Drawing curves
Pen Tool Option Bar
Combination anchor point
Path Menu
Pen tool- Conclusion
Chapter 18: Adjusting selections and Select menu
Chapter 19: Masks
Chapter 20: Changing sky
Chapter 21: Selecting hair
Chapter 22: Few more examples
Example 1: House
Example 2: Businessman
Conclusion
Introduction
Hello and welcome to the first chapter of my first book.
My name is Svetlana Gajic, and I am retouching artist. Although I travel a lot, I am
currently situated in Belgrade, Serbia. I have degree in classical languages, but I work as
retouching artist for years now. Retouching is my great passion and love.
As I work mainly for Microstock photographers, I have great experience in dealing
with Adobe® Photoshop® software, especially in retouching photos. I work for
Shutterstock, Istockphoto and Getty images almost ten years.
Photoshop® is great software. It can help you create almost everything you can
imagine. This book covers only one segment of it, but never the less really important
segment. Skill of selecting desired parts of your photo will help you realize your artistic
goals and unleash your talent and imagination.
Whether you want to be professional retouching artist, or you want to alter your photo
out of fun, this book will help you a lot.
When you are professional retouching artist, you have to know how to perfectly and
quickest possible select and isolate some parts of your image, because sometimes you
have to apply changes just to certain parts of photo you are working on, or you have to
move certain parts from one photo to another. If you have an object on white background,
it is well, not so hard to do, but if background is not white or uniform, or if object is
similar color as background, selecting it can be tricky. That’s why you need the power and
magic of selection tools and commands in Photoshop. If you are professional, you cannot
work without selections and masking.
If retouching photos is just your hobby, you will love this book. Just imagine that you
want to make composite photos out of fun. You do not know what composites are? They
are images made of more than one photo. For instance, you spent your holiday last year in,
let’s say Bangkok. Bangkok is great, vivid, picturesque city that never sleeps, but if you go
there in peak of season, you will see that the sky is always gray or white. So, you will
have lot of holiday photographs with awful, dull sky. And what will you do? Before
showing holiday photos to your friends, you will open Photoshop and replace sky on
them. Or you can cut out your friend from photo taken in your backyard, and place
him/her to your holiday Bangkok photo. Or you can remove your distracting ex from great
photo from your friend’s wedding.
In this course you will learn how to do that.
This book will tell you everything about selections in Photoshop. That knowledge will
help you improve your retouching skills, and at the end of the course you will be able to
make cut outs for isolated images or for composites, example: you will be able to change
sky on your photo, or to add or remove objects from photo, and you will be able to apply
changes just to certain parts of your image. If you already know how to make selections,
this book will dig a bit deeper in certain tools and commands.
Although I will cover everything about selections if you want to retouch photos, or to
make composites, you need to know “few” other things, such as color adjustments,
adjustments layers, filters and so on, that you will not be able to learn here.
This is specialized course about selections, so you need basic knowledge about tools,
adjustments and so on….
If you are absolute beginner, this course can help you learn how to select objects, but
that is not enough for retouching. Although for sake of teaching, I will mention some basic
things that are not connected with making selections.
If you have some ideas about how Photoshop works, you are welcome to discover a
great world of Photoshop selections.
You will need computer (PC or Mac), Adobe Photoshop CS4 or later, although you can
use previous versions too, but bear in mind that previous version may not be able to
perform everything that is explained in this book. I personally use Adobe Photoshop CC.
You will also need computer mouse or graphic tablet. It is possible to work with mouse,
but graphic pen tablet is more precise and when you master skill of using pen, you will
forget mouse forever, even for surfing the Internet. If you are professional, graphic tablet
is must have.
This is just first part of my Selection and Masking series. I will release second part
called “Masking” soon. It will tell you everything about masking, the other great feature
that is connected with selections.
Book contains lot of color images, but you can also read it on kindle or other black and
white device.
Chapter 1: Basic Photoshop commands

Before I start talking about selections, I will talk about some basic commands in
Photoshop, just to be sure that you know them.
First let’s talk about Photoshop Essential Workspace. Just open program, you don’t
need any image for now.
The first line is Menu Bar, there you can find File, Edit, Image, Layer, Type, Select,
Filter, 3D, View, Window and Help drop down menus.
Option Bar is beneath Menu Bar. On Option bar you can see options of currently
selected tool.
Toolbox is on left side of Photoshop window.
Panels, such as Layer Panel, Channels, Adjustments Layers, and so on, are on right
side of Photoshop window.
If you want, you can customize workspace to suit you better. Just rearrange it and save
changes.
I encourage you to use keyboard shortcuts, they are very handy, and they will speed up
your workflow. So, conclusion is that you love shortcuts, although you are not aware of
that.
Human beings are not impeccable, that’s why the most powerful command in
Photoshop is Undo. The easiest way to go one step backward is to click Ctrl + Z on PC, or
Cmd + Z on Mac.
If you want to go few steps backward, just go to History panel (if you do not see it, go
to Window on Menu Bar, and select History).
The easiest way to Zoom in on 100% is to double click on Zoom tool in Toolbox, and
the easiest way to fit your photo to screen is to double click on Hand tool.
To Zoom in or out in small increments click Ctrl++ on PC, or Cmd ++ on Mac, to
zoom in; or Ctrl — on PC, or Cmd - - on Mac, to zoom out.
If you want to toggle between Screen Modes tap F on your keyboard. There are three
Screen modes:
1) Standard screen mode- mode with all tools, bars and panels that you have on your
workspace
2) Full screen mode with menu bar
3) Full screen mode
To switch temporarily to Hand tool, while any other tool is selected, click Space bar.
To switch temporarily to Move tool, while any other tool is selected, click Ctrl on PC
or Cmd on Mac.
 To switch temporarily to Zoom tool, click Ctrl + Space bar on PC or Cmd + Space
bar on Mac.
To make new empty layer click Shift + Ctrl + N on PC, or Shift + Cmd + N on Mac.
To copy selected layer click Ctrl + J on PC, or Cmd + J on Mac, while desired layer in
layer panel is selected.
To select everything on a layer, click Ctrl + A on PC, or Cmd + A on Mac.
To copy and paste selection on new layer or new document, click Ctrl + C on PC, or
Cmd + C on Mac (to copy); and Ctrl + V on PC, or Cmd + V on Mac (to paste).
I strongly recommend you to learn these keyboard shortcuts and to use them. They will
speed up your workflow and make it easier.
If you want, you can even assign keyboard shortcuts to tools and commands that do not
have default keyboard shortcut.
Don’t know how to do that? Don’t worry, it’s easy, just go to Edit- Keyboard shortcuts.
There you can see all existing shortcuts, and assign new to commands that you often use.
Ok, now you know basic things, so we can move forward to great world of Photoshop
selections.
Chapter 2: What are selections?

Image 01. Sunflowers

Now, look at the image above, and think about what you see.
You see sunflowers, leaves, sky, aren’t you? Even if you do not know the name of
plants, you know that these are flowers. How do you know that? Well, you have probably
seen myriad of flowers in your life, and your brain can connect previous experiences with
image you are looking at now.
And what about Photoshop? Does it have brain and previous experiences too? You see
sunflowers and sky, and Photoshop sees just numbers which represent pixels.
Pixels are small squares with different luminosity and colors, and together they
compose your photo. But for Photoshop they are just that, small squares with different
luminosity and color. So, if you want to select these sunflowers or sky, you have to tell
and explain Photoshop to do so.
But how? Can your computer read your mind? Of course not! You have to
communicate with Photoshop on language that it understands, and that is language of
selections.
If you do not tell Photoshop what to select, it thinks that everything is selected, and
changes will be applied to whole photo, or layer. These changes can be destructible or
indestructible, it is up to you to choose which workflow you prefer. So, you have to tell
Photoshop where to apply these changes, and you can do it with selections tools and
commands.
 Selection isolates certain parts of an image, so you can apply some filters
or adjustments to those parts, while unselected parts of your image remain
unchanged.
You can move selected parts from one photo to another, or you can apply changes just
to selected parts of image.
You can make selections based on shape or color.
There are many ways to select an object or a person in Photoshop, and at the end of this
course you will master them all.
 Selection tools
There are three groups of selection tools in Photoshop toolbox:
Marquee tools
Lasso tools, and
Quick selection tools
Fourth tool is Pen tool, but Pen tool is mainly tool for drawing paths and vector
graphics.
Chapter 3: Marquee Tools- Introduction

First tool that you are going to learn about is Marquee tool.
There are four Marquee tools in Toolbox:
Rectangular Marquee Tool, keyboard shortcut is M
Elliptical Marquee Tool, keyboard shortcut is M
Single Raw Marquee Tool, no keyboard shortcut
Single Column Marquee Tool, no keyboard shortcut

With Marquee Tools you can make rectangular or elliptical selections, or you can select
1 pixel wide raw or column.
By default, Rectangular Marquee Tool is first in row, but you can reveal other hidden
tools by holding your mouse or pen on small triangle in lower right corner of tool icon in
Toolbox. If this is too slow for you, you can just type M on your keyboard.
Keyboard shortcuts are great, I love them because they allow me to work faster!
So if you tap M once Rectangular marquee tool will be selected, if you tap it with Shift,
Elliptical marquee tool will be selected.
If you do not like tapping Shift + M, just go to Preferences (PC under Edit menu, Mac
under Photoshop menu in upper left corner), then go to general and uncheck Use Shift key
for tool switch, now you need to tap just one letter for selecting all tools in one tool group.
Chapter 4: Rectangular Marquee Tool

Rectangular Marquee Tool, as it name says, makes rectangular selections.

For this chapter, I will use two solid color layers document, one red and one white. Just
make two layers, and fill them with two different colors, for instance red and white.
Choose Rectangular Marquee Tool from Photoshop toolbox, or simply tap M on your
keyboard.
Now place your cursor somewhere on the document click and drag, while holding
mouse button down, stop when you are satisfied with your selection and release mouse
button.

Image 02. To make selection with Rectangular Marquee Tool click and hold mouse button while dragging selection.
Now look at the Image 02. Dashed line represents borders of your selection. Everything
inside that area is selected and you can apply changes to that selected area. Everything
outside is not selected, and changes will not affect that area. Dashed line is usually called
“marching ants”, because it resembles ants marching in line.

Let’s talk about how to manipulate selections. At first moment you will think that you
need more than ten fingers for that. But relax, you have enough fingers, you just have to
make them dance on your keyboard.
If you want to move your selection from one place to another while making it, hold
Space bar while you still hold your mouse button down. Pay attention, do not release
mouse button! If you release it holding space bar will not move your selection!
If you want to move finished selection to another location, click with any selection tool
within selected area. The tool will temporarily change to Move Selection Tool, and you
will be able to move selection wherever you want. This refers to all selection tools.
If you want selection to be perfect square, click and hold Shift while making selection
(first click with Rectangular marquee tool, and then hold Shift).
If you want your selection to start from the center click and hold Alt on PC, or Option
on a Mac, and if you want perfect square starting from center click and hold Shift + Alt, or
Shift + Option on Mac while making selection.
And if you want to move your perfect square started from center, click Space bar while
you still hold Shift + Alt on PC, or Shift + Option on Mac, and your mouse button is still
down. Yes, it would work better if you were octopus or squid, but after few tries you will
succeed.
Now you can delete that rectangle, or you can fill it with some other color, or apply
some filters or adjustments to it (example, hue/saturation, to change color of selected
rectangle, filter/render/clouds, to add clouds filter, and so on, and so on). See Image 03.
 Image 03. In two layers document I have made rectangular selection on upper layer, and deleted selected area
tapping on Delete on PC, or Backspace on Mac.

If you want everything except this rectangle to be selected, you have to inverse
selection. There are few ways to do that.
The easiest way is to tap Shift + Ctrl+ I on PC, or Shift + Cmd + I on Mac, although
you can do the same by going to Select Menu on Menu Bar, and choose Inverse, or right
click with your mouse or pen in selected area and select Select Inverse. See Image 04.
 Image 04. Click: Shift + Ctrl + I on PC or Shift + Cmd + I on Mac to inverse selection. You can see that selection is
inversed because now there are two lines of marching ants. Red part is selected, white is not selected.

When you inverse selection you will see two selection borders with marching ants.
Look at the image above, area inside those two borders is selected, and white square is not
selected any more.
Click Ctrl + J on PC, or Cmd + J on Mac, if you want to copy selected area on new
layer. Photoshop will make new layer with selected pixels copied on it, and will
automatically deselect your selection.
Ok, now you know how to make selections with Rectangular Marquee Tool, and how
to make basic manipulations with all selection tools, so you are ready to continue learning.

Now I will talk about Rectangular Marquee Tool’s Option Bar.

Option Bar is located under Menu Bar. Each tool in Photoshop has its own options. If
you do not see it, go to Window on Menu Bar and choose Options.
 Rectangular Marquee tool has options, too.
First thing to do on Rectangular Marquee Tool Option Bar, is to specify selections
options:
You can choose:
1) New selection
2) Add to selection (or hold Shift)
3) Subtract from selection (or hold Alt, or Opt)
4) Intersect with selection (or hold Shift+ Alt, or Shift+ Opt on Mac).

Then you can specify feathering of a selection, i.e. blurring of selection edges.
Feathering will make gradient transition, and objects will better blend with its new
background or surrounding.
Look at the image below (Image 04). This is same rectangle from beginning of this
chapter (Image 03), but with 50px Feather. The bigger Feather number will result with
more blurring and bigger transition around borders of selection.
Feather of 50 px means that 25 px within selected area, and 25 px outside selected area
will be blurred to make transition.

Image 04. Selection made with Rectangular marquee Tool with 50 px Feather
 If you want to specify feather in Option Bar, you have to do that before making
selection.
If you want to specify feathering of already existing selection, go to Select Menu on
Menu Bar, and choose Modify- Feather (as you can see keyboard shortcut is Shift + F6).
The third option is to right click in selected area and choose Feather.
The bigger feathering number means the bigger amount of blurring the edges of your
selection.
In Option Bar you can choose Style of selection:
1) Normal- you will make selection just by dragging your mouse
2) Fixed ratio- you can set aspect ratio of your selection (example, if you want selection
twice as wide as its height, enter 2 for width, and 1 for height, or if you want a perfect
square enter 1 for width and 1 for height). Decimal values are allowed too.
3) Fixed size- enter precise values of your selection. Beside px (pixels) you can use
units as in (inches), and cm (centimeters).
We will talk about Refine Edge later in this tutorial.
If you want to add new area to the selection, click Shift, and drag around the area you
want to add.
If you want to subtract from the selection, click Alt on PC, or Opt on Mac, and drag
around that area.
If you want to intersect with selection hold Shift + Alt on PC, or Shift + Opt on Mac
while creating second selection.
These commands are same for all selection tools, and all types of selections.
Look at image 03 again. Now you do not need that rectangular selections any more,
and you want to get rid of it. You will deselect selected areas by clicking Ctrl + D on PC,
or Cmd + D on Mac, or go to Select Menu and click Deselect, or right click in selected
area and click Deselect.
So, you have deselected your selection, and then you realized that you forgot to make
some important change, do not worry, just go to Select Menu, on Menu Bar, and click
Reselect- it will recall your last selection.
Easy way of selecting objects on layer is to Ctrl or Cmd click on layer icon in Layer
Panel.
These commands are same for all selection tools in Photoshop. Remember them, you
will need them.
Chapter 5: Elliptical Marquee tool

Elliptical Marquee Tool makes elliptical or circular selections.

Choose Elliptical Marquee Tool from Toolbox or tap M on your keyboard, place your
cursor on your document, click and drag. As you can see, process of making selections
with Elliptical Marquee Tool is same as process of making selections with Rectangular
Marquee Tool.

Image 05. Selection made with Elliptical Marquee Tool

Elliptical Marquee Tool works same as Rectangular Marquee Tool:

To move selection from one place to another, hold space bar while you still hold mouse
button down.
For a perfect circle, click and hold Shift while making selection.
If you want selection to start from the center click and hold Alt on PC, or Option on a
Mac, and if you want perfect circle starting from center click and hold Shift + Alt, or Shift
+ Option on Mac while creating selection.
 And if you want to move your perfect circle started from center, click Space bar while
you still hold Shift + Alt, or Shift + Option on Mac, and mouse button is still down, you
know, octopus style.

Option Bar of Elliptical Marquee tool is almost same as Option Bar of Rectangular
Marquee Tool, with just one difference, for Elliptical Marquee Tool you can turn on Anti-
aliasing. And now you ask yourself “what the hell is that?”
Anti-aliasing will smooth edges of selection, it will soften color transition between
object and background without losing details. It is useful for composite images.
Of course, you can Feather selection to blur the edges and blend them better.
As you can see, both Feather and Anti- aliasing smooth selection edges, but is there any
difference between them? Yes of course.
Anti- aliasing will smooth just edge pixels, and you actually do not have control over
that command. You can just turn it on or off.
But, you can control Feather command. You can specify amount of feathering. If you
make composites, Feather command will help you a lot, it will blend object better with
new background.
To snap Rectangular or Elliptical selection to guide or other object, go to View- Snap
to. This is tutorial about selections and masks, and we will not talk about placing guides.
 Single Raw Marquee Tool and Single Column Marquee Tool
(No keyboard shortcuts) will select one pixel wide raw or column. See image 06.

Image 06. Selections made with Single raw (horizontal selection), and Single column (vertical selection) selection
tools
Chapter 6: Marquee Tools conclusion

In this chapter you have learned how to use Marquee Tools and how to make
rectangular and elliptical selections. Rectangular and Elliptical Marquee Tool work same,
only difference is that you can turn Anti- aliasing on or off for Elliptical Marquee Tool.
If you need perfect square or circle, hold Shift.
If you want your selection to start from the center, hold Alt on PC, or Opt on Mac.
Shortcut for Rectangular and Elliptical Marquee Tool is M!
With Single Raw Marquee Tool and Single Column Marquee Tool you can create 1
pixel wide or high selection.
Chapter 7: Lasso Tools

Lasso tools are:

Lasso Tool
Polygonal Lasso Tool and
Magnetic Lasso Tool
They all have same keyboard shortcut - L.

Lasso tool - with Lasso Tool you can draw freehand selections around objects.
Place cursor where you want selection to start and draw around object you want to
select. Don’t release mouse button while drawing selection.
Look at the Lasso Tool Option Bar.
First, on Option Bar you can specify options of selection, same as on Marquee Tool
Option Bar. You can specify what you want:
1) Make new selection
2) Add to selection, or you can do it while holding Shift key on keyboard
3) Subtract from selection, it is easier to subtract from the selection while holding Alt
or Opt key on keyboard
4) Intersect with selection.
Then, you can set Feathering and check Anti-aliasing, same as for Marquee Tool.
If you need combined free hand and straight lines selection, you just have to hold Alt
on PC or Opt on Mac for drawing straight lines. We will talk about Refine edge later.
If you want to add to the selection, click Shift, and draw around the part you want to
add to selection. If you want to subtract from the selection, click Alt on PC or Opt on Mac,
and draw around the part you want to subtract from selection.
If you are good at drawing, you can make neat selections with Lasso tool, but it is a bit
time consuming.
Lasso tool is good for making loose selection around objects or some parts of image,
especially with big feather, in cases when you do not have to be precise. See image 07.
Image 07. Using Lasso Tool for making loose selection around the object
You can use it for selection scleras, and for irises you can use elliptical marquee tool. See
image 08.

Image 08. Using Lasso Tool for selecting sclera in the eye.

If you need more precise selection, I suggest you to use some other tool, especially if
you do not want to spend lot of time on making selection.
Chapter 8: Polygonal Lasso Tool

With Polygonal Lasso Tool you can create straight lines and straight corner selections.
Go to Toolbox, choose Polygonal Lasso Tool, or tap L on your keyboard.
To make selection with Polygonal Lasso Tool position cursor where you want your
selection to start, click once, release mouse button, move your mouse to next location,
where you want next point to be, click once again, and so on….
If you hold Shift key, you will draw straight lines and corners multiply 45 degrees.
If you want to temporarily switch to Lasso Tool and create freehand lines, just hold Alt
on PC or Option on Mac. To return to Polygonal Lasso, release Alt or Opt
To erase segment, just click Delete on PC or Backspace on Mac. It will erase last
segment.
To close selection, position cursor over starting point, a small circle will appear, this is
sign that the selection will be closed, and click. If you do not see small circle, it means that
cursor is not over starting point, just double click, and your selection will close.
As you can see, Option Bar is same as Lasso Tool Option Bar.
First you can choose options of selection (new selection, add, subtract, intersect), then
you can specify feather, and check Anti-alias on or off. I will talk about Refine Edge later.
For practice, choose image with lot of strait lines, example cityscape, or something like
that. I have chosen image below.
My husband took this photo few years ago in beautiful Brugges in Belgium. Although
it was summer, the sky was completely white and washed out. So, I decided to change sky,
and to apply some effects to that image.
 Image 09: Street in Brugges, Belgium

First, I have selected the sky with Polygonal Lasso Tool.

Image 10: I used Polygonal Lasso Tool to select sky

Then, I have replaced sky and applied few more effects (using Curves I have achieved
cross-processed look, and I have blended new sky layer and buildings with Soft light
blending mode and Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer: I made new layer containing both
sky and buildings blend it with layers below with Soft light blending mode, and reduced
opacity and saturation of that layer).
This is my final result:
Image 11: Brugges- Final result
Chapter 9: Magnetic Lasso Tool

Third Lasso tool is Magnetic Lasso Tool.

Keyboard shortcut is L.
It works well especially on high-contrast images.
While you draw, the border of selection will stick to the edges of area you want to be
selected.
Click where you want your selection to start, and drag. You do not have to hold mouse
button down.
Look at the Option Bar.
First you can choose what you want Magnetic Lasso Tool to do: to make new selection,
to add to selection, to subtract from selection or to intersect with selection. Then there are
Feather and Anti-aliasing, for smoothing edges of your selection.
If you want to be more precise, adjust Width size in Option bar.
Width is radius in which Photoshop will place new points of your selection: smaller
width, more precision.
You can set the Width in Option Bar just before your first click with Magnetic Lasso,
and you cannot change it later.
If you turn on Caps Lock on your keyboard, you will actually see “brush” size of your
Magnetic Lasso, i.e. size of radius in which Photoshop will place points. Anchor points of
your selection will appear just in that radius.
If you want to change Width from your keyboard, just use bracket keys [ ], (left to
reduce “brush” size, right to increase it. This is better option, because you can adjust it
while working).
To specify sensitivity of Magnetic Lasso set a Contrast.
Add a number from1%- 100%. A lower contrast value detects lower-contrast edges and
vice versa, higher value will detect just the edges with high contrast. You can set the
Contrast in Option Bar before you start to make selection, but you can change it from
keyboard while working, just pressing period (.), to increase contrast, or comma (,) to
decrease it.

Then, you can set Frequency at which points will be added to the path, numbers from
1-100. If you set higher value, points will be placed more often. The default value is 57,
and it usually works ok.
If Photoshop has problem to decide where to add next point, you can add it manually.
Just click at desired location.
 If Photoshop automatically add point to wrong spot, click Delete on PC, or Backspace
on Mac, to get rid of that anchor point. Or click Delete on PC, or Backspace on Mac few
times, if you want to delete more than one point.
The last icon in Option Bar refers to pressure sensitivity and you can use it only if you
use pen tablet. If it is turn on, it allows pressure sensitivity.
If you need to switch temporarily to Lasso Tool or Polygonal Lasso Tool, hold Alt on
PC. Or Opt on Mac. Now you can make straight lines, or you can drag around and make
freehand selections.
To switch back to Magnetic Lasso, release Alt or Opt and add anchor point.
Choose image with high contrast edges for practice.

Image 12: Making selection with Lasso tool.

As you can see at the image above, I have started selection with Magnetic lasso tool,
but it obviously needs some adjustments.
 Image 13: Final result: selection made with Magnetic Lasso Tool, so I can apply levels, curves or any other
adjustment to selected part of the image.

And now, you have selected desired area on your photo and as you apply changes, you
want to see your photo without marching ants. Just click Ctrl + H on PC, or Cmd + H on
Mac.
To unhide marching ants again click Ctrl + H on PC, or Cmd + H once more. This
refers to all selection tools and commands.
Chapter 10: Lasso Tools- Conclusion

Now you know how to use Lasso Tools, how to draw freehand selections with Lasso,
or straight-lined selections with Polygonal Lasso.
If you hold Alt or Opt, Lasso tool will become Polygonal Lasso, and vice versa.
You even know how to stick points of a selection to high-contrast objects with
Magnetic Lasso.
With Lasso Tool you can make freehand selection. It is good for making loose
selections around certain part of your image. You have to hold mouse button down while
you draw.
With Polygonal Lasso tool you can easily select objects with straight lines and sharp
corners. You do not hold your mouse button down all the time, just click and move cursor
on new location, where you want next segment of selection.
To switch between Lasso and Polygonal Lasso Tool on fly, hold Alt on PC, or Option
on Mac.
Magnetic Lasso Tool is good for high contrast images. It will automatically place
anchor points, and make selection.
Chapter 11: Move tool, copy and paste selections, transform
selections

Ok, you have made selection, and you want to move selected pixels to new location.
But you do not have idea how to do that. Well, you can do it with Move Tool.
But first, let’s see how to copy and paste from Edit Menu on Menu Bar.
How to copy and paste selection?
Well, you can, of course, do it with Edit - Copy (or Ctrl + C on PC, or Cmd + C on
Mac), and then Edit - Paste (or Ctrl +V on PC, or Cmd + V on Mac), it will paste selected
area above existing selection as a new layer, or if nothing is selected, in the middle of
document, as new layer.
Instead of just Copy, you can Copy merged, and that will copy content of all layers in
selected area.
Instead of Paste you can choose to Paste in place, Paste into or Paste outside. Go to
Edit menu on Menu Bar, Paste special, and there choose desired command.
Paste in place pastes selected area in exact same location on another image.
Paste into pastes selected area into existing selection.
Paste outside pastes selected area outside of existing selection.
Paste into, and Paste outside will add layer with layer mask to the image. The layer and
mask will be unlinked, so you can move them independently.
I will talk about layer masks in second part of this series, which will soon be released.
Look at the example below. This is obviously photo of window.

Image 14. Window

 I used Polygonal Lasso Tool to select all parts of that window, although I could use
Rectangular Marquee Tool, too.

Image 15. Selected window glass

After selecting it, I choose photo of sky, and I opened it in Photoshop (remember that
you really need folder with sky photos).

16. Sky

Then I hit Ctrl + A on PC or Cmd + A on Mac, to select sky photo, and Ctrl + C or
Cmd + C to copy it. After that I returned to Window photo, and used Edit- Paste into.
Ctrl + A on PC or Cmd + A on Mac is Select All command, and it will select content of
entire layer.
This is final result.

Image 17. Final result, window with sky reflection- result of Paste into command

I suggest you to try these commands; it will be easier to learn them.

Now, let’s return to Move Tool.
Keyboard shortcut is V, but you can temporarily switch to Move Tool clicking Ctrl on
PC, or Cmd on Mac, when you release Ctrl, or Cmd, Photoshop will automatically return
to last used tool.
With Move Tool you can move selected parts of the image from one place to another or
from one photo to another.
You can even copy selected areas and move them around, or align one of them with
another.
To move selected pixels, just select Move Tool, or tap V (if you need to temporarily
switch to Move Tool, just click Ctrl on PC or Cmd on Mac), click anywhere in selected
area, and move it to desired location.
If you want to copy selected part, position your cursor anywhere in selected area, hold
Alt on PC or Opt on Mac, and you will see that cursor has changed to double arrowhead,
one black and one white. Now just drag copy to desired location.
To offset path (to copy and move it) by 1 pixel, click Alt on PC or Option on Mac, and
arrows on keyboard, while Move Tool is selected. To offset selection by 10 pixels click
Shift + Alt + arrows on PC, or Shift + Opt + arrows on Mac.
All copies made with Move Tool holding Alt or Opt are on same layer.
If you want to copy selected area to new layer, select area and click Ctrl + J on PC or
Cmd + J on Mac.
Now let’s look at Move Tool Option Bar.
First is Auto select. It is useful if you have number of layers, because it will
automatically select layer (or group of layers) when you click on its content in document
window.
Next is Show Transform Controls. When checked, it shows bounding box around
selection, so you will be able to transform selection. Show Transform Controls, just like,
Free Transform, transforms pixels within selection.
Just click any corner and drag, and it will resize selection.
If you want to constrain proportions, hold Shift while dragging.
If you want to resize selection from center, hold Alt on PC or Opt on Mac.
If you want to constrain proportions and resize from center at same time, hold Shift +
Alt on PC or Shift + Opt on Mac.
If you click Ctrl or Cmd on your keyboard, you can transform it with perspective.
If you want to rotate selection, bring cursor close to corner or side of selection, and it
will change to double head arrow, so you will be able to rotate selection.
If you want to rotate selection in 15 degrees increments, hold Shift on keyboard.
If you start transforming selection, with Show Transform Controls turned on, Option
Bar changes.
On the Option Bar you can specify Width, Height, position of X and Y axes, angle of
rotation, and so on.
You can even choose to Warp selection.
When you are satisfied double click within selected area, click Enter on PC or Return
on Mac, or click “checked” button on Option Bar.
If you want to exit transform selection menu without applying the changes, click
Escape on keyboard, or click button on Option Bar.
You can transform pixels within selection, by going to Edit on Menu Bar- Free
Transform, too.
Align and Distribute commands will appear on Move Tool Option Bar.
I recommend you to experiment with them, that is best way to figure them out. If you
hover over any of commands, Photoshop will show you what that command does.
 Transform selection
If you want to transform just selections edges (borders with marching ants) and not the
pixels within it, go to Select Menu on Menu Bar, and choose Transform Selection.
As you can see, Option Bar is same as Option Bar of Free Transform, or Option Bar of
Move tool when Show Transform Controls is checked.
The only difference is that Transform Selection transforms just selection, and not pixels
within it, while Move Tool and Free Transform will transform selected pixels.
Chapter 12: Quick Selection Tool

Quick Selection Tools are Quick Selection and Magic Wand.

Keyboard shortcut for both of them is W.
Quick Selection Tool was first introduced in Photoshop CS3. It is actually brush, and
with it you can “paint in” selections. It is really fast, but sometimes the edges are not so
good.
It works great if the edges are well defined.
If you paint near the edges of an object, selection will follow its contours.
Select Quick Selection Tool from Photoshop Toolbox, or tap W on your keyboard, click
and paint over the area you want to select.

Let’s talk about Option Bar.

First you choose what do you want Quick Selection brush to do:
1) Make new selection
2) Add to selection (it is easier to add to the selection while holding Shift key on
keyboard)
3) Subtract from selection (it is easier to subtract from the selection while holding Alt
on PC or Opt on Mac).
If nothing is selected, new selection is default option. After you click once and start to
make selection, option will automatically change to add to selection.
In the Brush Menu on Option Bar, you can change size of brush (you can also do it
with square brackets from your keyboard [ ]), hardness and spacing, and you can turn
Pressure Sensitivity on or off. You can also adjust roundness and angle of your brush.
The next field in Option bar is Sample all Layers. You have to check that field, if you
want Quick Selection Tool to create selection based on all layers, not just one.
Auto-Enhance automatically reduces roughness and makes edges of selection
smoother, and it brings selection closer to image edges. We will talk about Refine Edges
later.
Quick Selection Tool is great for making quick selections. The more you paint with it,
Photoshop better realizes what you want to select. If you paint near the edges of an object,
selection will follow its contours.
For start choose image with well defined edges and strong contrast. Experiment with
different types of photos and you will conquer Quick Selection Tool better.
Image 18: Selection made with Quick Selection Tool, to enhance cityscape reflection on water.
Chapter 13: Magic Wand

For using this wand, you do not need spells and charms, you just need keyboard, mouse
or pen.
Magic Wand makes selections based on tone and color. It is good for photos with
strong background color, example sky, or walls, photos with big areas covered with solid
color.
Pick Magic Wand from Photoshop Toolbox, or tap W on keyboard, and click on part of
image you want to select. Click just once on desired part of photo, and Photoshop will
select area that is similar to color that you picked.
Now, look at Option Bar:
First, of course, there are options for:
1) New selection
2) Add to selection, or you can do it while holding Shift key on keyboard
3) Subtract from selection, it is easier to subtract from the selection while holding Alt
on PC or Option on Mac.
4) Intersect with selection.
With Sample Size you determine color and number of surrounding pixels that will be
selected.
1) Point Sample: Samples just the color of the pixel you clicked.
2) 3 by 3 Average: averages the color of the pixel you clicked and the surrounding eight
pixels.
3) 5 by 5 Average: averages the color of the pixel you clicked and the surrounding 24
pixels.
4) 11 by 11 Average: averages the color of the pixel you clicked and the surrounding
120 pixels.
5) 31 by 31 Average: averages the color of the pixel you clicked and the surrounding
960 pixels.
6) 51 by 51 Average: averages the color of the pixel you clicked and the surrounding
2,600 pixels.
7) 101 by 101 Average: averages the color of the pixel you clicked and the surrounding
10,200 pixels.
For the higher resolution files, you need higher average.
Eye Dropper Tool (I), also use Sample Size, and if you increase Sample Size in
Eyedropper tool it will affect Magic Wand.
 With Tolerance you can adjust the color range that your Magic Wand will select.
Smaller tolerance will select just a few hues of color you have selected. If the tolerance is
higher Magic wand will select more different colors.
You can set Tolerance from 1-255.
By default Tolerance is set to 32, it means that Photoshop will select all pixels that are
same color as sampled, and all pixels that are 32 shades lighter or darker then selected
one.
Anti-alias will soften the edges of selection.
Contiguous tells Photoshop to make selections only of pixels that are next to each
other. This means that if photo shows, example: Sunflower, with yellow patches in other
parts of image, just sunflower will be selected, and yellow patches in background will
remain unselected. See image 19.

Image 19: Selection made with Magic Wand, tolerance 32, Contiguous turn on. As you can see, patches of same
color that are not physically connected with area that I wanted to select, are not selected.

Sample all layers selects pixels of same color from all visible layers, not just from top
layer.
Let’s repeat: to make selection with Magic Wand click once, and Photoshop will
automatically make selection based on color and tone, it will select area of similar color.
If you want to add to that selection, hold Shift on your keyboard, and click to area you
want to add. If you want to subtract from selection, hold Alt on PC or Opt on Mac, and
click on area you want to subtract from selection.
Pay attention on parameters on Option Bar, they will determine how Photoshop will
make selection, and what will be selected.
Chapter 14: Color Range

Color Range is basically enhanced Magic Wand, Magic Wand on dope. It is great for
making selections based on color. In most cases you do not want to use Magic Wand, you
want Color Range.
To use Color Range, go to Select, on Menu Bar, and choose Color Range, that will
open Color Range dialog box.
And I suppose that you are now scared again, but don’t worry, after reading this
chapter, you will conquer Color Range.
When you open Color Range dialog box, cursor will automatically change to
eyedropper. If you want to make selection, just click in a document window (document
window is photo opened in Photoshop) on a color you want to select with that eyedropper,
you can even drag your cursor to select range of colors. You will see changes in big black
field in your Color Range dialog box, and that field is actually mask.
To add to selection hold Shift and click with eyedropper on area you want to add, to
subtract from selection hold Alt on PC or Option on Mac, and click with eyedropper on
area you want to subtract. Adding to selection will add desired color or range of colors,
subtracting will subtract desired color or range of colors.
You can add to or subtract from selection by choosing Add to selection or Subtract from
selection eyedropper on right part of Color Range dialog.
Open any image in Photoshop and select Color Range from Select menu on Menu Bar.
Now look at Color Range dialog box.
The most important thing on Color Range dialog box is mask- big black field that
dominates Color Range dialog box. I will talk about masks in second book of this series,
but for now important is to remember that white parts of the mask will be selected, black
part of the mask will be deselected, and gray parts will be partially selected.
Let’s first talk about Preview. It is located just below the mask in Color Range dialog
box. You can choose what you want to see in dialog box. By default, preview is set to
Selection, but you can set it to Image, if you want.
If it is set to Selection, you will see mask, if it is set to Image, you will see photo you
are currently working on. To toggle between Selection and Image preview click Ctrl on
PC or Command on Mac.
Below mask and preview, you will find drop down menu, where you can choose
Selection Preview.
Selection Preview sets what you will see in document window. By default it is set to
None, so you will see original image.
 The second option in drop down menu is Grayscale. Grayscale will show mask in
document window. It is useful when you need to see mask in full size.
Next option is Black Matte, it shows selected areas against solid black background.
This is good for bright images.
White Matte will show selected areas against white background. This is good for dark
images.
Last option is Quick Mask. It will show selection with Quick Mask red overlay. I will
talk about Quick Masks in second book of this series.
I suggest you to try all Selection Previews and to experiment with them.
On the top of Color Range dialog box, just above the mask is Select drop down menu.
There you can choose what you want to select.
If you want to select color or color range from photo, use Sampled Colors, it will
unable eyedropper for picking color. This option is set by default.
In Select drop down menu, below Sampled Colors, you can choose color or a tonal
range (reds, yellows, greens, cyans, blues, magentas), but in that case eyedropper will not
work and you will not be able to refine selection. You can also select pixels on brightness
base (highlights, midtones, shadows).
In Photoshop CS6 or later you can select skin tones, if you choose to select skin tones
option Detect Faces below Select drop down menu will be enabled. If you want to
preserve skin tones, click Invert on right part of dialog box, this will invert selection, so
you will be able to apply changes to other parts of your image, while skin tones remain
unchanged.
You can also choose Out of Gamut colors in select drop down menu. Out of Gamut
colors cannot be reproduces in CMYK color space that is used for commercial printing.
Let’s return to dialog box. Localized Color Clusters (if you use Photoshop CS4 or
later) is one of options. It is located between Detect Faces check box and Fuzziness slider.
If you check Localized Color Cluster, Range slider will become active. With Range
slider you determine distance between color and sample points, how far or near a color has
to be from sampled points. It is similar to Contiguous option on Magic Wand Option Bar.
If the Range is set to 100% it is actually turned off, and it does not affect image. If you
move slider to the left (numbers below 100%), it will affect only on areas that are closer to
the sample point. If you want to select multiple color ranges, check Localized Color
Clusters.
Fuzziness is similar as Magic Wand Tolerance, but Fuzziness is dynamic, you can
change it while working. With Fuzziness you define how much lighter or darker can other
selected pixels be from selected point. You can choose number between 1 and 200. Bigger
number will select more luminance levels, smaller number less luminance levels.
Photoshop adds luminance levels incrementally, as you raise Fuzziness number. A value of
50 will select all pixels same as sampled point, and all pixels that are within 50 brightness
values lighter or darker . It will soften the selection.
If you want to return to original selection, hold Alt on PC or Option on Mac, and
Cancel button will be temporarily changed to Reset. Click Reset button.
If you want to save your selection, click Save button on right part of dialog box, type
name of selection and choose location where you want that selection to be saved.
If you want to load already saved selection, click Load.
Look at image below. My husband took it in Athens few years ago, but, as you can see,
weather was cloudy, and sky on photo is dull.

Image 20: Photo of Acropolis with dull sky

I used Color Range to select sky, and to replace it.

After clicking Ok, Photoshop automatically closes Color Range dialog box, and selects
sky, or part of image that was white on Color Range mask. See image 21.

Image 21. Close up of selection that I made with Color Range. As you can see it was not 100% perfect, so I used
Lasso Tool to remove parts of the selection that I didn’t need.

On the Image below, you can see final result. I have changed the sky, removed parts of
scaffold, and cloned out plant on the left side of temple and people on the right.
Image 22. Final image of Acropolis.

I encourage you to use Color Range, it is great command, and it will speed up your
workflow and make it easy.
Chapter 15: Quick selection Tools and Color Range
Conclusion
Quick selection tools (Quick Selection and Magic Wand) and Color Range make
selection based on colors.
With Quick Selection Tool you can “paint in selection”. It is brush. More you paint
selection will be more precise.
Magic Wand and Color Range are similar, but you can control Color Range better, and
change setting on fly. Generally results of Color Range are much better then Magic Wand
results.
Instead of using Magic Wand, it is better to use Color Range. Color Range is dynamic,
you can adjust selection as you work, and it has preview inside dialog box.
With Color Range you make selections based on natural luminance level, and it usually
results with nice outlines.
Chapter 16: Refine Edge
Ok, now you know how to use selection tools and how to make selections, but you are
not satisfied with results. Your selection is too loose, has halo, you were not able to select
some parts of object, edges are jagged… Everything is bad. And what now? Well, you
have two options, first is to sit and despair, and the second is to use Refine Edge. I
recommend second option.
Open any image. I will use this funny photo of my husband.

Image 23. I will use this funny photo of my husband, to teach you everything about Refine Edge.

Now, make desired selection on your image. I used Color range to select background
on this particular image.
Because I want to change background, I obviously need to invert Color Range mask, I
want object to be white, and background black, but I selected background because it is
uniform, and it is easier to select it. I can invert selection by checking Invert on Color
Range dialog box.
Ok, this is close up result what I got with Color Range. Details are lost, edges are
jugged, and selection is not satisfying.
 Image 24. Close up result of bad selection.

Now I have two choices, first to give up, and close this image, and second to use Refine
edge. I will obviously use Refine Edge.
If you choose any selection tool, one of the options in Option Bar is Refine Edge. You
can also access Refine Edge command from Select menu, or when you right click within
borders of selection with any selection tool.
Now, look at the Refine Edge dialog box.
First two commands on left side of Refine Edge dialog box are Zoom and Hand tool.
They work as ordinary Zoom and Hand tools.
View Mode is on top. You can choose between seven View modes:
1) Marching ants (M) - you will see normal selection with marching ants
2) Overlay (V) - quick mask red overlay
3) On Black (B) - selected pixels on black background
4) On White (W) - selected pixels on white background
5) Black and White (K) - mask
6) On Layer (L) - layer with masked selection
7) Reveal Layer (R) – whole layer
If you press F on keyboard, you will cycle through views, and if you press X, view will
temporarily be disabled.
I recommend you to experiment, and try all of them.
For this image, I used view mode On Black.
Next I have adjusted Radius slider. Radius slider adjusts size of selection border in
which Photoshop will make refinements. For sharper edges use smaller radius.
 Above it is Smart Radius that analyses the edges and tries to fix them up
automatically. Usually it works great, but I did not use it for this particular image.
Experiment with Smart Radius too.
On the left side are Refine Radius Tool (keyboard shortcut is E- it expands detection
area) and Erase Refinement Tool (keyboard shortcut is E- it restores original edges). To
reveal Erase Refinement Tool, click small triangle in lower left corner of tool icon. Hover
over with your mouse to see short explanation. If you want to subtract from radius choose
Refine Radius Tool, and hold Alt on PC or Option on Mac.
When you work with Refine Radius Tool, you do not add or subtract from selection, you
just change radius.
Refine Radius Tool expands the area in which Photoshop detects edges.
Erase Refinement Tool will subtract from that area, it will restore original edges.
These are great tools, and you will love them. I used Refine Radius Tool all around
subject on my image.
You can toggle between these tools pressing E (or Shift + E, it depends on what is
selected in Preferences) on your keyboard. These tools are brushes, so you can adjust
radius with square brackets.
Show radius (I) will show you area in which Photoshop will try to refine edges of
selection. It is located on top of Refine Edge dialog box beside View.
Show original (P) is actually preview, if it is turn on it will show you original
selection. It is located on top of Refine Edge dialog box, below Show Radius.
Next part of Refine Edge dialog box is Adjust edge:
Smooth will obviously smooth selection and make it less jagged.
Feather softens or blurs edges. It will make edges look not so bad, but not good at all. I
suggest you to leave Feather 0.
Contrast- with this command you can adjust contrast of the edges.
Shift edge will expand or contract selection borders- if you move slider on the left it
will contract selection, and if you move it to the right, selection will be expanded.
Decontaminate Color will remove color fringe and replace it with color of neighbor-
selected pixels. You can manually control Amount of that change.
At the end you can choose Output, where do you want your final result to appear. You
can choose Refine Edge result to appear as Selection (marching ants), on new layer, on
new layer with layer mask, in new document, or in new document with layer mask.
When you are satisfied with selection, click OK.
If you want to select hair (selecting hair, oh…. Eternal doom of retouching artists….),
or fine fur, you will obviously use Refine Edge to refine your selection, and get rid of
destructive halo or remnants of color from original background.
 And now final result of my work. My husband on new background that better suits his
expression.

Image 25. Final result.

Image 26. Close up of beard on new background

Refine Edge is great command it will save you lot of time and speed up your workflow.
Explore it, learn how to use it, and I promise you, you will be satisfied. You can use it to
refine any selection made with any selection tool. You can access it from Option Bar of
any selection tool, from Select M on Menu Bar, or right clicking inside selected area.
Chapter 17: Pen tool-Introduction
Pen Tool is basically drawing tool. It is most notorious tool in Photoshop, and probably
hardest to learn. But, once when you know what to do with it, you will love it!
Pen Tool is used for creating paths.
What is path? Path is line that goes from one point to another. It is main part of vector
graphic. It is basically outline.
Ok, and now you want to know why I talk about vector graphic in Photoshop tutorial.
You can create vector based illustrations in Photoshop, although it is obviously not its
main purpose, and, what is more important, you can make great, precise selections with
Pen Tool. Pen Tool is ultimate selection tool in Photoshop!
As you can see Pen Tool is not grouped with other selection tools in Toolbox. It is
grouped with Type Tool, Custom Shape Tool and Direct selection Tool. To select it, click
on icon in Toolbox, or press P on keyboard. Remember, keyboard shortcuts are your
friends!
 Drawing straight lines with Pen Tool
Let’s try to create something with Pen Tool. Open Photoshop and create new document
with white background, dimensions are not important.
If you don’t know how to do it, go to File- New, or tap Ctrl + N, or Cmd + N on Mac.
Dialog box will appear. There you can assign name to your document, choose dimensions,
resolution, color mode and color of background.
After creating new document, choose Pen Tool from Toolbox, or press P on your
keyboard. Try to write something with it, for example your name. You could not do it?
The result was just one point, dot with two crazy lines coming from that point? Welcome
to the club. Photoshop Pen tool cannot be used as normal pen. What does it do then?
Pen Tool places points on certain desired spots, and Photoshop connects that points
with straight or curved lines. Each point has control handles to control direction of the
line.
This is called Bezier curve, by the name of its inventor, French engineer Pier Bezier.
Ok now, let’s return to Toolbox. Click on Pen Tool and hold. It will reveal all tools
underneath it. As you can see, there are two Pen Tools (Pen Tool and Freeform Pen Tool),
and then there are Add Anchor Point, Delete Anchor Point and Convert Anchor Point Tool.
All you need to know for now is that you can access all those tools from your keyboard
while working.
Look at Option Bar. Firs field refers to Pen Tool mode. Pen Tool has two modes:
Shape and Path. Choose Path.
Click with Pen Tool anywhere in document and release mouse button. You have created
starting point. Now click on any other spot, example, right or left from starting point, and
release mouse button. You have created two anchor points, and Photoshop has connected
them with straight line.
If you want to draw straight horizontal or vertical lines, hold Shift on keyboard. Press
Delete on PC, or Backspace on Mac, to delete last point. Press Delete or Backspace again
to get rid of starting point. Now you know how to create straight line with Pen Tool, and
how to delete point created with Pen Tool.

Image 27. Straight line created with Pen Tool.

Let’s create rectangle now. Place cursor in upper left part of your document and click
once. You have created upper left corner of rectangle. Move cursor horizontally to the
right, and create upper right corner. If you want straight lines, hold Shift on keyboard.
Move cursor vertically down, under last made point and click. You have created lower
right corner. Now, just finish rectangle making lower left corner. When you hover over
starting point again, you will see small circle, Photoshop is telling you that your path will
be closed with next click. You have created your first path with Pen tool. Congratulations!

Image 28. Rectangular path created with Pen Tool.

Ok, now you know how to create rectangle with Pen Tool, but bear in mind that
actually you have not created rectangle, you have created path, and path is just outline.
This rectangle will not show in printing, or other application.
Let’s try something a bit different. Delete rectangular path that you have created, go to
Photoshop Toolbox, choose Rectangular Marquee Tool (you already know how to use it),
and create rectangular selection. Fill that rectangle with any color and click Ctrl + D on
PC or Cmd + D on Mac, to deselect rectangle. Now choose Pen Tool from Toolbox, and
trace rectangle you have just created.

Image 29. Create rectangle with Rectangular Marquee Tool, fill it with any color, choose Pen Tool and trace that
rectangle.

As you can see, there is rectangle, and it has path around it, but you can move and
adjust path separately from rectangle.
When you draw path it is not connected with pixels underneath. It exists separately, and
you can transform it separately.
It does not even appear among layers. Where is it then? It is in Path Panel. Look at
Panels at right side of Photoshop window, if you do not see Paths, go to Window on Menu
Bar, and select Paths.
Now you have Paths Panel opened. You’ll see that at first glance Path Panel looks
almost like Layer Panel. The path you have created is called Working Path.
 Photoshop can have just one Working Path at time, so if you need more paths on one
image, you have to save them. Double click on words Working path, and type new name
to rename it. Type for example Rectangle, or whatever you like.
Your path is saved now, and it is saved with Photoshop document, too. Paths are visible
only in Photoshop, if you print out photo, or upload it on website, path will not be visible.
 Drawing curves
Now let’s create a circle with pen tool.
Delete layer with rectangle, or turn off its visibility, or create new document. To delete
layer, go to Layer panel, and drag layer to trashcan, at the bottom of Layer Panel; to turn
of visibility of layer, click on eyeball icon on left from layer’s thumbnail. Create a new
layer (click icon next to trashcan, on bottom of Layer Panel). Choose Elliptical Marquee
Tool, hold Shift on keyboard and create circular selection. Fill it with any color and
deselect (click Ctrl + D on PC or Cmd + D on Mac, to deselect).
Go to Path Panel and turn of Rectangle path visibility (click on empty space in Path
Panel).
Circle is actually curve, not straight line. So how can you draw curves with Pen Tool?
Is it possible? Yes, of course it is possible. Place cursor on left side of circle and press
once, to make starting anchor point. Now, move cursor on top of circle, click and drag
horizontally (if you just click, Photoshop will draw straight line). Try to align line that you
are making with edge of circle.
Beside curve line that you have just created, you can see straight line with small dot at
end. That line that goes from anchor point is called control handle. Control handles will
help you control path direction. The direction of control points shows direction of next
path segment.
Place cursor on right side of circle and press once. As you can see, my line does not
follow circle edge (see Image 30).

Image 30. Tracing circle with Pen Tool.

So what can I do to adjust it? I need Direct Selection Tool. It is placed between Type
Tool and Shape Tool (white arrow, keyboard shortcut A). But to access it temporarily, I
will just hold Ctrl on PC or Command on Mac while Pen tool is selected.
With Direct Selection Tool selected, I will click on top anchor point to select it, and
now I can move that point around, or I can move control handles to adjust path.
I will make few more anchor points, just to complete circle (See Image 31). Go to Path
Panel, and rename this path to save it.

Image 31. Circular path created with Pen Tool.

Ok, and what if you decide that you do not need anchor point somewhere in the middle
of path?
Do you remember what will happen if you press Delete or Backspace key? Photoshop
will delete last drawn anchor point, but if you have closed path, and click Delete or
Backspace, you will delete line segment which is controlled by anchor point, and not just
anchor point.
To delete anchor point, just hover over it with Pen Tool, you will see minus sign (-),
and click. That will delete anchor point. You can choose Delete Anchor Point Tool from
Toolbox, but I think that it is easier to delete it on fly.
Ok, now you know how to delete anchor point, but how to add new when you need it?
Just hover over line where you want to add new anchor point with Pen Tool, you will
see plus sign (+), and click. That will add new anchor point. You can choose Add Anchor
Point Tool, but I think that it is easier to add it with Pen Tool.
Move that new anchor point with Direct Selection Tool, and you have perfect circle
again.
 Pen Tool Option Bar
Look at Option Bar again.
First thing is to choose what you want to draw, shape or path. I will talk just about
Option Bar for drawing paths.
Next is what you want to do with that path: to make selection, mask or shape.
Path Operations (combine, subtract, intersect, exclude, merge), and Path Alignment are
next. With Path arrangement you can bring shape to front or back.
Rubber Band is handy option. It will show you where your next segment will be, and
how it will look.

Image 32. Rubber band if enabled shows you where next segment will be. As you can see there is no anchor point at
the end of the path, because last segment is actually just Rubber band showing you direction of path.

Auto Add/Delete is checked by default, but if you uncheck it, Pen Tool will not add and
delete anchor points automatically, you will have to use Add and Delete Anchor Point
Tools from Toolbar. I keep this option checked, because for me it is easier to add/delete
anchor points on fly, without changing tools. The last option is Align Edges.
 Combination anchor point
Now you know how to make straight lines and curves with Pen Tool.
Let’s make Crescent. As you can see if you make curve, you cannot make sharp angle,
actually, you can, but you have to help Photoshop a bit.
Look at the circle from last chapter. Let’s trace circle once again. Place your cursor at
bottom of circle, make starting point, place cursor at left side of Circle click and drag,
make another anchor point on top and drag. Complete circle.
Lines that go from anchor point are control handles, if the control handle is long, the
segment line will be long, and vice versa. Control handles are some kind of magnet that
attracts segment line. They will always show you direction of next segment.

Image 33. Control handles show and control direction of segment line.

As you can see last drown anchor point is selected, it appears as filled square, while
other, unselected anchor points are hollow squares. But what if you want to select some
other anchor point? You can use Direct Selection Tool (white arrow, keyboard shortcut A),
but it is much easier to access it just by holding Ctrl on PC or Cmd on Mac, while Pen
Tool is selected.
Ok, hold Ctrl on PC or Cmd on Mac, and with direct selection tool select top of circle.
Two Control handles have just appeared. Now try to drag that one control handle left or
right. If the control handle is longer, the line segment that is controlled by that control
handle will be longer, too. If you make control handle shorter, the line segment will be
shorter.
Try to rotate same control handle. As you can see, both handles are moving, although
you moved just one control handle.
If you want to rotate control handles independently, you need Convert Point Tool. Go
to Toolbox, and under Pen tool choose Convert Point Tool. You can temporarily switch to
Convert Point Tool holding Alt on PC or Option on Mac (see image 34). Try to rotate
control handle now. It moves separately. You have broken connection between those two
control handles. Now you can change direction of just one segment of your path.
 Image 34. To break connection between control handles, and to move them separately, hold Alt on PC or Opt on
Mac.

If the connection between control handles is broken, and you need to move them
together, hold Ctrl + Alt on PC or Cmd + Opt on Mac, click on end of either handle and
rotate. It will rotate both handles at same time.
Let’s continue making crescent. Delete control point on right side of circle, hold Ctrl on
PC or Cmd on Mac, and click with Pen tool selected on top anchor point to select it. Break
connection between control handles holding Alt on PC or Opt on Mac. Adjust path, a bit.
You can add new anchor point in the middle of right- inner side of crescent, if you want.
Now you have created Crescent.

Image 35. Crescent. To break connection between control handles hold Ctrl on PC or Cmd on Mac.

Turn off visibility of Circle layer, and Circle path, or delete them (to turn of visibility
of path, just create new path in Path panel).
Now try to draw waves. When you want to change direction of your path, click Alt or
Opt on keyboard, or go to Convert Anchor Point Tool. Place your cursor in lower left
corner of empty layer, create starting point, and continue making waves, (see Image 33).

Image 36. Waves drawn with Pen tool.

 As you can see, you need sharp angle, and Pen Tool will not make it without your help.
If you just follow line direction, next segment will go in wrong direction. So, change last
drawn anchor point, click Alt or Opt on keyboard to temporarily switch to Convert point
tool (you will see small corner on right side of Pen tool cursor), and continue drawing line
is opposite direction. Now, just finish making those waves.
 Path Menu
Now you know how to draw paths with Pen tool, but what can you do with these paths?
You can make selections out of them.
Look at Path panel. At first glance it looks almost as Layer panel.
The path you are currently working on is called Working path. There can be just one
Working path at time, so if you want to save path, double click on words Working path and
type new name. Your path is now saved, it will be saved with the document when you hit
File- Save, or Ctrl+ S on PC or Cmd+ S on Mac. If you print image with saved path, path
will not print out, nor it willappear on web if you display image on website. Paths are just
Photoshop things (although you can use them in Illustrator® and InDesign® ).
To select path in Path panel click on it. To deselect it, click on empty space in Path
panel.
Look at icons on bottom of Path panel. If you want to delete path, drag it to Trashcan
icon.
To make new path click on Create New Path, next to Trashcan.
The easiest way to turn path into selection is to click the Load path as a selection
button, in Path panel. So, turning path in a selection is easy, but it is even easier to use
keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Enter on PC, or Cmd + Return on Mac.
Look at icons on bottom of Path panel again. Firs one from left to right is Fill Path with
foreground color, the second one is Stroke path with brush, third one is Load path as a
selection, next one is Make work path from selection, and it is enabled only when you
have something selected on your photo. Next is Add layer mask.
On upper right side of path panel Path panel is fly-out menu. There you will find
commands:
- Save path
- Duplicate path
- Delete path
- Make work path
- Make selection
- Fill path
- Stroke path
- Clipping path
- Panel options (to change thumbnail size).
If you right click with Pen tool, you will get similar, but a bit more extensive pop-up
menu. There you will find commands to make selection out of path, to delete path, to
stroke it, and so on, and so on….
 Some of those commands refer to shapes, not to paths (unite shaper, subtract from
shape, and so on…)
I will not talk about drawing shapes with Pen tool, but the principal is same.
If you draw shape with Pen tool, Photoshop will automatically place it on new layer
 Pen tool- Conclusion
As I said before, Pen tool is probably hardest tool to work with in Photoshop, but once
when you get used to it, you will love it. It is ultimate selection tool.
With Pen tool you can easily select various shaped objects regardless of background. If
you save path, you will be able to use it later.
You can even copy paths from one document to another.
My final advice is: learn Pen Tool, get used to it, it is great and it will make your work
easier and funnier.
Chapter 18: Adjusting selections and Select menu
Although I have already told you almost everything about adjusting selections, I think
that it is wise to repeat it again.
If you want to add to selection or select additional area, hold Shift.
If you want to subtract from selection, hold Alt on PC or Opt on Mac.
If you want your selections to intersect, hold Shift + Alt on PC or Shift + Opt on Mac.
If you want to make new layer from selected area, click Ctrl + J on PC or Cmd + J on
Mac.
If you want to move selection borders (just marching ants, not pixels below them),
choose any selection tool, place it within selected area, and move to desired location. You
can even drag selection border to another image window. If you want to move selection in
horizontal or vertical axes, start to drag and then hold Shift key. To move selection 1 pixel
(or 10 pixels), use arrow keys (or Shift arrow for 10 pixels).
If you want to hide marching ants, click Ctrl + H on PC or Cmd + H on Mac.
If you want to deselect something, click Ctrl + D on PC or Cmd + D on Mac.
If you want to reselect last selection, click Shift+ Ctrl + D on PC or Shift+ Cmd + D on
Mac.
To inverse selection click Shift + Ctrl + I on PC or Shift + Cmd + I on Mac.
If you want to select everything on layer, click Ctrl + A on PC or Cmd + A on Mac.
If you want to select content of layer, Ctrl or Cmd click on layer icon.
Now, let’s pay attention on Select menu on Menu Bar.
First four options are crystal clear: Select All, Deselect, Reselect, and Inverse.
If you want to select or deselect all layers, or to select everything on a layer use
command - All layers.
If you have lot of layers, and you need to find one of them, click Find layer.
If you want to see just one layer that is selected, and nothing else, click Isolate layer.
You already know what Color Range and Refine Edge are.
Modify is next, under refine Edge- under the Modify, you will find some commands
for modifying selections.
Borders will make another selection around selection. Go to Select- Modify- Borders.
Photoshop will ask you to choose width between selection borders. Enter desired number
and click Ok. This will make one more selection around existing one. You can enter value
between 1 and 200. New selection is centered, like a centered stroke, half of it is outside
of first selection, and half of it is inside.
Smooth will smooth edges of selection. Enter desired radius, and click Ok. It will fix
jagged edges.
Expand and Contract will expand or contract your selection. If you need few more
pixels to be part of selection, click Expand and enter desired number of pixels. If you want
your selection to be a bit smaller, click Contract, and enter desired number.
Feather will feather actually blur edges of selection.
Grow and Similar- Grow will expand your selection to similar connected areas.
Similar will select similar pixels in entire image.
With Transform Selection, you can transform just selection edges (marching ants),
and not pixels within selection. Just click any corner of selection and drag, it will resize it.
If you want to constrain proportions, hold Shift while dragging. If you want to resize
selection from center, hold Alt on PC or Opt on Mac. If you want to constrain proportions
and resize from center at same time, hold Shift + Alt on PC or Shift + Opt on Mac.
If you click Ctrl or Cmd on your keyboard, you can transform it with perspective.
If you want to rotate selection, bring cursor close to corner or side of selection, and it
will change to double head arrow, and you will be able to rotate selection. If you want to
rotate selection 15 degrees, hold Shift on keyboard.
On the Option Bar you can specify Width, Height, position of X and Y axes, angle of
rotation, and so on.
You can even choose to Warp selection.
When you are satisfied double click within selected area, click Enter on PC or Return
on Mac, or button on Option bar.
If you want to exit Transform Selection menu without applying the changes, click
Escape on keyboard, or click button on Option bar.
Edit in Quick Mask Mode will activate Quick Mask overlay. Red area is not selected.
To subtract from selection, choose brush from Toolbox, and paint with black. To add to
selection, paint with white. To exit Quick Mask mode click Quick mask icon, under
foreground and background color in Toolbox. We will talk about Quick masks later.
To save your selection click Select on Menu Bar- Save selection, type name and choose
destination.
If you want to load already saved selection, click Load selection.

If you right click with ANY selection tool within selected area, you will see menu
similar to Selection menu.
First four commanders are Deselect, Select Inverse, Feather and Refine edge, and you
already know what their purpose is.
 Save selection is crystal clear.
Make Work Path will make path from selection.
Layer via copy will make new layer and copy selected part on it.
Layer via cut will make new layer and cut/paste selected area to new layer.
New layer will just make new layer.
Free transform will transform pixels within selection.
Transform selection will transform just selection borders.
Fill will fill selection with color or pattern. You can choose blending mode and opacity
of fill.
Stroke will add stroke to selection.
Gaussian blur will add blur to selected area.
Fade will fade last thing you have done. You can choose amount of fading, blending
mode and so on.
Chapter 19: Masks
Although I will not speak about masks in details in this book of Selection and Mask
series, I will just mention few things, so you can refine selections even more and speed up
your workflow.
There are few different types of masks in Photoshop, but here I will just talk about
layer masks.
Layer masks are masks connected with certain layer. They control transparency of
layer they are connected with. The Opacity slider in Layer panel controls transparency,
too, but unlike Opacity, layer mask can change transparency of layer partially.
Unlike Eraser Tool, or some other tools in Photoshop, masks are not destructive. When
you work with them, you can easily go back and change whatever you want.
To adjust masks, you can use brush, dodge and burn, even Smudge or Blur Tool.
You can create layer mask clicking on Add a mask button on bottom of Layer panel.
When you click on Add a mask button in Layer panel, Photoshop will add white layer
mask. Layer masks are always black and white.
White Layer mask revels all content of layer, layer is 100% visible.
If you want to hide something with layer mask, select mask thumbnail in Layer panel
clicking on it, choose brush, and paint with BLACK color over mask. Remember: white
reveals, black conceals. If you want to hide or reveal something partially, paint with
desired shade of gray.
If you want to conceal content of your layer, you need black mask. Black mask hides
content of layer completely. The easiest way to make black mask is to hold Alt on PC, or
Option on Mac while you click Add a mask button on layer panel. Now choose brush, and
paint with WHITE color over mask, to reveal parts of layer.
To reset color to default black and white, tap D on your keyboard. To swap between
foreground and background color, tap X. Shortcut for Brush is B. Remember those
shortcuts, they will make your job easier.
If you want to see mask in document window, hold Alt on PC or Option on Mac, and
click mask thumbnail. To hide mask, and see photograph in document window again, hold
Alt on PC or Option on Mac, and click mask thumbnail once more.
You can turn selection into mask and vice versa. That is one of Photoshop great
features. Make basic selection with tool that suit your photo best, and then click Add a
mask button in Layer panel. Now you can adjust mask with Brush, Dodge, Burn, or
whatever tool you want. You can even blur mask, add noise, use gradient.
If you need to turn mask into selection, hold Ctrl on PC or Cmd on Mac, and click
mask thumbnail.
To delete layer mask, select mask and drag it to Trashcan on Layer panel.
 These are some basic information about Layer masks. If you want to learn more about
them, buy my next book from this series.
Chapter 20: Changing sky
One of most common ways to enhance photo in Photoshop is changing sky.
When you go somewhere, abroad or wherever, you cannot impact on weather or how
sky looks. So, it can happen that you are at awesome place, but sky is awful, dull, grey,
white…
Sometimes is even better to take photos on cloudy day, when light is dispersed, but that
does not mean that you cannot changer sky, and upgrade your photo with it.
Or you have client who wants different sky on his photo.
I already have said that you really need “Sky” folder. When you go to mountains,
seaside or any other interesting place, take photo of sky. You will need it sooner or later.
When you want to change sky, or any other background on an image, you have to pay
attention on lens, direction of light, angle of shooting.
Let’s look at Brugges photo again. Street is nice, cute, romantic, soooo European, but
sky is greyish and dull.

Image 37. Brugges again.

What can you do to make that photo better? You can change sky, of course. And what
is first step in changing sky? Selecting it, of course.
In Chapter 8, I used Polygonal Lasso Tool to select sky on this photo.
Do you remember why I have used Polygonal Lasso? Because all lines on photo are
straight, and it was Chapter about Polygonal Lasso Tool.
But, now, after 19 chapters, you can use few other tools, for instance Magic Wand, or
Quick Selection Tool, or Magnetic Lasso, or great Color Range command, or Pen Tool.
In example below, I have used Color Range, because I think it is better and more
advanced than Magic Wand, or any other selection tool. That’s why I suggest you to use
Color Range whenever you need good color based selection. Color Range is my favorite.
After selecting sky, sometime you will need Refine Edge. Refine your selection, make
it better blend with new sky, and choose where you want Photoshop to place its result. I
usually choose new layer with layer mask, because layer mask gives me comfort of
adjusting and refining selection, but it is up to you to decide.
Then, place new sky on your photo (or vice versa), and make some base adjustments to
blend two layers better (for instance: levels, curves, shadows and highlight), then you can
merge two layers in new top layer (keyboard shortcut Shift + Alt + Ctrl + E on PC, or
Shift + Opt + Cmd + E on Mac), and try different blending modes. Most used blending
modes are Overlay and Soft light; they increase contrast, lighten lights and darken
shadows on your photo, but with different results.
If you want to know more about blending modes, you will be glad to hear that I will
release book about Photoshop blending modes in the future.
And that’s it. You have just changed sky on your photo! Congratulation!
And just to remind you… Final image of street in Brugges once more.

Image 38. I have replaced sky and applied few more effects (with Curves I have achieved cross-processed look, and
I have blended new sky layer with buildings with Soft light blending mode).
Chapter 21: Selecting hair
Selecting hair is curse of all retouching artists, it is even more notorious then Pen tool.
And now you think: Hey, what is she talking about? I know everything about Pen Tool! It
is not hard to use it at all!
Do not worry, after this chapter, you will know what to do with flying hair, and how to
select it. Well, you will almost know, because I will talk about this subject in next book,
too.
In this chapter, I will teach you how to select hair and fur with selection tools that you
have learned in previous chapters.
In next book, book about Masks, I will teach you how to make complicated selections
with Channels, Apply Image, Calculations, and so on, and so on.

Image 39. Blonde with flying hair.

When you have to select hair, it is usually easier to select background, and then to
invert it. For selecting background you can use any selection tool. You can even combine
them, to make perfect selection. I will first suggest Color Range, of course.
If background is uniform, you can even use Magic Wand. You can select background
with Quick Selection Tool, too.
After making basic selection, and inverting it if needed, you desperately need Refine
Edge.
There are no magic settings that will fit each image, I cannot reveal great secret, I can
only encourage you to play with program, and at the end, you will learn, you will
intuitively know what to do. If you are not satisfied with results, run Refine Edge few
times, it will enhance your selections every time. Be creative, play with sliders, try
different options and at the end you will simply feel what to do with Refine Edge for each
and every photo.
 For this image I used View Mode On Black, I didn’t check Smart Radius, Radius 1.5,
and I used Refine Radius Tool (brush on the left) to enhance edges even further. Other
settings: Smooth 1, Feather 0.0, Contrast 5, Shift Edge 0, Decontaminate Color checked
with Amount 25%. I used Output Mode New Layer with Layer Mask.

So, I had selected background and used Refine edge, now I have to place girl on new
background. I chose bokeh, party like background.

Image 40. Bokeh background.

After that, I ran Refine edge few more times. I adjusted Contrast and Radius every time
I ran Refine Edge. I adjusted Smooth a bit (1 pixel exactly), but left Feather on 0.
Finally, when I was satisfied with selection, I hit Shift + Alt + Ctrl + E (Shift + Alt +
Cmd + E on Mac), and Photoshop merged and copied all layers in my document in one
new layer on top.
I changed blending mode of that top layer to Overlay and decreased opacity and
saturation of that layer. That helped me blend subject with new background better. At the
end I added one Curve Adjustment layer on top, and changed all colors in image a bit.
This is my final result.
 Image 41. Final result, Blonde with flying hair on bokeh background.

Image 42. Close up of girl’s hair on new background. As you can see, it blended perfectly.

Now you know How to select hair in Photoshop.

Every photo is unique, that’s why I cannot give you magical parameters that you can
use on each and every photo. You have to experiment, to play with sliders, to get used to
program…
Just to remind you, if you need to select hair, it is usually easier to select background,
and to invert it.
When you want to change background on an image, you have to pay attention on lens,
direction of light, angle of shooting. It won’t look good if you combine image taken with
one lens, with image with different lights and taken with another lens.
Chapter 22: Few more examples
Here are two more examples with short explanations.
 Example 1: House

Image 43: Another image from Brugges.

As you can see, house is beautiful, but image is a bit too crowded, and sky is dull.
Although trees around house look great in reality, I didn’t like them on photo. They were
too destructing.
So, I decided to remove trees, and to change sky. First I made basic selection with Pen
Tool, and then I created layer mask to hide parts that I didn’t need: sky and trees. I kept
hedges on left side of image.
At the same time I removed lamp on right side by mistake, so I copied left lamp, rotate
it horizontally, and placed it on right side of house.
Then I found cloudy sky that I liked, and placed it below house layer. I made new
merged layer on top (Shift + Alt + Ctrl + E on PC or Shift + Alt + Cmd + E on Mac), and
changed blending mode to Soft light, and decreased opacity a bit. Finally, I created Curves
adjustment layer on top, changed colors of both house and sky a bit (I added more blue
and green), and increased contrast with “S” Curve.
Remember Curves are great feature, you can do almost anything with it. You can
increase or decrease contrast, change color, create cross processed look, and much more…
You’ve guessed it, I suggest you to learn everything about Curves.
Image 44: Same house after small changes.

Now look at image above. That is my version of house in Brugges. It looks mysterious,
gothic, dramatic.
And just to remind you: Don’t delete content of layer until you are more then 100%
sure that you don’t need it any more. Use layer masks, they will hide what you don’t want
to see, and you will be able to adjust them if you want.
 Example 2: Businessman
This is photo of businessman.

Image 45: Businessman

As you can see this is studio shot.

Image is good, but I decided to make it a bit more interesting. So, I used guess what to
select background? Yes, you are right, I used Color Range, because background is solid
color.
I could use Magic Wand, or even Quick Selection, but I prefer Color Range, because it
allows me to change setting on fly, while working. That is great feature.
After that I used Refine Edge, to refine my selection a bit.
So, I had selected background, created layer mask to hide background, and I had to
decide where I wanted this guy to be…
I decided to send him to Bangkok, so I placed image of Silom, business area in
Bangkok, below layer with businessman.
And that is almost everything. I used Gaussian blur to blur buildings a bit, and
lightened them with curves, to match colors of original Businessman photo, and finally I
placed Curve adjustment layer on top to increase contrast, and blend Businessman with
new background.
This is my final result.
Image 46. Businessman in Bangkok

Look at final result. What do you think of it?

Conclusion
And this is it. The end. Thank you for buying and reading this book. Now you know
how to make selections with selection tools and commands, you know how to use Refine
Edge, how to adjust, move and transform selections, and you know few basic things about
Layer masks.
All you have to do now is to master your new skills, and you have to do that yourself.
Get know the program, get used to it. It is your tool. You have to be familiar with it.
Play with sliders and setting. Don’t be afraid to experiment. In worst case what can
happen? Maybe you won’t be satisfied with final result, but that is also good, because it
will help you in your learning process, and your work. But sometimes mistakes can look
great, too.
I can’t tell you some final truth about Selections, I can’t give you magical settings to
use them on all photos. I have taught you how selection tools and commands work, rest is
on you. You have to find best workflow, you have to decide what suits you best. You have
to experiment and play. You have to be adventurer and explorer.
Remember you need different setting for each image.
I hope that you like this book, and I hope that I have helped you improve your
Photoshop skills and knowledge.
Soon, I will release second book about Masks. In it I will continue saga about
selections. I will talk about all types of masks in Photoshop, and I will teach you how to
quickly select tricky things (like hair or fur), using luminosity masks.
So, if you like this book, see you soon in next episode.
If you prefer video tutorials, you can find my lectures on teaching sites, on Internet.
Our journey is over, but stay tuned.
P. S. All images in this book belong to my husband and me. Actually he shot them all,
and I retouched them.