Photoshop Tools and Selection Techniques

PhotoShop Lesson 1

Photoshop Tools and Selection Techniques

When you open Photoshop you should see the toolbar. Tools may differ slightly depending on the version of Photoshop that you are using. The tools on the left are in Photoshop 7 while the tools on the right are version 5.5. Examine the tools and get to know those in your package

Toolbars Explained

Selection tool Move tool

More Selection tools Lasso tool Magic Wand

Airbrush Paintbrush Crop tool

Eraser Pencil

Rubber Stamp Smudge tool Healing Brush tool

Focus Tools Toning tools

Type Mask Type tool Combined Type tool

Line tools Gradient tool Pen tool Path Selection tool

Paint Bucket tool Eyedropper tool Notes tool

Hand tool Zoom tool Slice tool

Color Picker tool - shows current foreground and background colour

Quick Mask Options

Different Screen Modes – standard, full, etc

Alternate between ImageReady and Photoshop

Note that tools with a small black triangle in the bottom right corner have a number of variations of the particular tool to choose from. To see the options click on the triangle and choose the variation you want

There are a number of tool options that I have not explained. You will get to know them on a ‘need to know’ basis!

Palettes

The palettes shown to the left can be switched on or off in the window by ticking the appropriate option under the show or hide in the Windows pull-down menu

Selection Tools

You cannot edit any part of an image until you first select the area you want to deal with. There are many ways of selecting using different selection tools

Identify and Use Selection Tools

Selecting part of an image is done by firstly deciding and clicking on the appropriate tool and then dragging the pointer over the area of the image you want selected. Clicking on a tool in the toolbox makes it the ACTIVE tool. Make sure you have selected the right tool for a particular task.

The rectangular Marquee tool - is used to select a square or rectangular area by first clicking the tool and then dragging it across the area to be selected

The ellipticalMarquee tool is used to select circular or elliptical shapes. This tool is displayed by clicking on the Marquee tool, holding the mouse button, then and dragging the mouse to the left. The selected tool now appears in the toolbox and can be selected

The Lasso tool - allows you to make a freehand selection.

Magnetic Lasso tool - which is very useful as it clings to edges

The Magic Wand tool - allows you to select areas of a picture based on colour similarity of adjacent pixels. It is useful for selecting oddly shaped objects or areas of an image

The Cropping tool - lets you get rid of part of an image you do not want

Using the Selection Tools

Some Pointers for Exercise 1

The melon is used for the head and the vegetable pieces to form the face etc as follows:

1Create an eye using the carrot and blueberry

a)Do this by using the elliptical Marquee tool and selecting from the centre of each vegetable

b)When you have the eye completed Duplicate 2 of them and position them on the face using the Move/Duplicate tool

2Use the kiwi to form the mouth on the face

a)Use the elliptical Marquee tool to select and move the kiwi into position for the mouth

3The pear needs to be selected, moved/copied and scaled to form the nose

a)Use the Magic Wand tool

4The radish needs to be selected, moved/copied, scaled and rotated to form the 2 eyebrows

a)Use the rectangular Marquee tool and the Magic Wand tool

5The orange slice needs to be selected, moved/coped, scaled and rotated to form the 2 ears

a)Use the Magnetic Lasso tool to extract the flesh from the orange slice

b)Duplicate for 2 ears, TransformRotate and move into position

6The pasta becomes the bowtie

a)Use Lasso tool to draw a freehand selection around the pasta piece – Add/Subtract as necessary until you have the selection correct

b)Move/Copy it into position for the bowtie

7The mushroom becomes the hat

a)Use the Lasso tool to draw a freehand selection around the mushroom – Add/Subtract as necessary until you have the selection correct

b)Scale and Move/Copy into position as the hat

8Complete exercise by Cropping the image to remove the remains of the vegetables. You will just leave the completed head

9Save completed image as Veghead to H

NOW Do Exercise 1

This will teach you how to use the selection tools

Create a folder called Photoshop in your H drive in the DTP folder
Copy the Lesson1 folder to your H drive to the Photoshop folder.
Start Photoshop from the desktop
Open the files called 01Start.psd and 01End.psd in Photoshop. You will begin with the Start file and you will create a file that looks similar to the End file!
Opening the 01End file is for you to see what it is you have to create. You will use all the vegetables to create a face using the melon as the head. This is what your finished exercise should look like
Save the 01Start file to your H drive again in the Lesson1 folder calling it Veghead.psd

Below I explain how to use the various selection tools to help you to complete Exercise 1.

Selecting an Area

Use the Veghead file to practice the various techniques explained below. Any of the selection tools can be used to select an area but each has particular advantages. The Marquee tool is for selecting squares or rectangles. The Lasso tool is used for freehand selections. The other tools are dealt with as we go along.

Selection Method

Click on the selection tool you want to use
Drag the mouse over the area concerned
A dotted line will appear around the selection which means that the area is selected

Deselect an Area

To get rid of all selections on your screen click on Select, Deselect

Reposition and/or Resize a Selection While Creating it

When creating a selection sometimes it is not exactly over the right area.

Select the area using the Marquee tool - DO NOT release the mouse button.
Then holding down the Spacebar, move the mouse to reposition the selection outline over the required area.
Release the spacebar but NOT the mouse button and drag again to resize the selected area. You will notice that when you drag without the spacebar the size and shape of the selected area changes but its point of origin does not
Practice doing this with any of the parts of the image in Veghead.psd

Selecting from A Center Point

To create the ‘eye’ shown here using the carrot slice and the blueberry use the methods which follow. You will need to select and copy the blueberry onto the carrot. Then you will need to select the compiled picture and duplicate it.

Click on circular Marquee tool
Position mouse pointer at the approximate centre of the blueberry
Click and begin dragging out to the edge.
DO NOT release the mouse button. Hold down ALT and continue dragging the selection until you reach the outer edge.
When you have selected the complete blueberry first release the mouse button and then release the ALT button
If the selection area is not working out that well read the next section and try it while making the selection

Adjusting Position of the Moved Object

You can make minor adjustments to the position of a moved object by using the direction ArrowKeys on your keyboard. This can only be done if you have moved the selection or if you have the move tool selected.

Press the up arrow a few times to move the selection upwards and so on for the other directions. (Use the blueberry or carrot to practice the above few techniques)

Moving a Selection

Select the area you want to move using any of the methods described above
Click on Move tool and position the pointer within the selected area.
Drag the selection to the new location

Duplicating a Selection

Moves a copy of the selected area to a new location

Use one of the selection tools to select the area concerned
Click on Move tool. Hold down ALT key and position the pointer within the selected area
The pointer becomes a double arrow, which indicates that a duplicate will be made when you move the selection
Once you release the mouse button a copy of the selection has been made
You can make multiple copies by releasing and clicking the mouse button

Shortcuts for Moving/Duplicating

Select the area to be moved or copied

To Move. With selection tool still selected HOLD down Control key and position the pointer within the selection. Drag the selection to the new location

To Duplicate. With selection tool still selected HOLD down Control + ALT and drag the selection to its new location. The original remains in the original position and a copy is placed in the new location.

To Change Area selected. Before releasing the mouse button hold down Spacebar and move the mouse. This will move the entire selection outline to a new location

Selecting using the Magic Wand Tool

The magic wand is good for selecting something which has a fairly well-defined shape. You need to set a tolerance level to say how many different shades or tones of a colour are selected when you click an area. The default is 32 indicating it will select 32 similar lighter and 32 similar darker tones. This tolerance level can be increased so that it will include more similar shades.

Use the pear to practice this

Select the pear with the magic wand tool at the standard 32 tolerance level
Notice the bottom right-hand part is not selected. This is because the tolerance level is not high enough.
Gradually increase the tolerance level through 50, 60 and 70 looking at the result after each change
At tolerance level 70 you will see that much more of the pear is selected

Adding and Subtracting Selections

To Add to selected area hold down Shift and continue selecting

To Subtract from selected area hold down ALT and continue selecting. (Use the mushroom to practice)

Adding/Subtracting using Magic Wand tool

With the pear selected using the above technique, continue as follows to get the entire pear selected.

1Hold down Shift key and click again in the unselected area of the pear with the magic wand tool

2With Shift still held down continue clicking until the entire pear is highlighted

Selecting with the Lasso Tool

Usually used for freehand selection. Sometimes you might want to do some straight lines also. These can be done by holding down ALT key and clicking one by one on the points you want straight lines drawn between (pasta example). To complete the selection the lines must overlap (fastening points).

Adding/Subtracting using Lasso Tool

To add to the selected area hold down Shift. A + (plus) sign appears with the lasso pointer.
Drag the lasso tool around the area you want to add to the selection. Release the mouse button and the two areas are merged.
Make sure you overlap the lines when selecting
To subtract an area from the initial selection hold down ALT. A - (minus) sign appears with the lasso pointer. Drag the lasso tool around the area you want to take away. Repeat until you have all unwanted areas selected

Magnetic Lasso Tool

This tool can be used to make freehand selections with high contrast edges

The border automatically snaps to the edge you are tracing making it easier

You can control the direction of the tool’s path by clicking to place occasional fastening points in the border. (Use the magnetic lasso tool to select the radish shown below)

Transform a Selection (Rotate or Scale)

This is used to rotate (turn) and scale (resize) a selection

Select area you want to transform
Choose EditTransformRotate
A box with handles appears around the selected object
Position the pointer outside a corner handle until you see a double-headed arrow , then drag in the direction you want the rotation to occur or
Choose an option from the drop-down menu which appears. Here you can choose 90, 180 degrees etc of rotation. The pictures here show a rotation of 1800 of the radish
To apply the rotation, press Enter. The box disappears but the object remains selected
Now click EditTransformScale
Again the box appears. The double-headed arrow outside the box will allow you to resize the object (use orange example)
Press Enter to apply

Combining Selection Tools

The Magic Wand tool makes selections based on colour. If an object you want to select is on a solid coloured background it may be easier to select the background and then subtract it leaving the object selected. (Use radish example again this time with the magic wand tool)

Use the rectangular Marquee tool to select an area around the picture (radish). You now have a rectangular area with white surrounding the radish. We want only the radish
Click on the Magic Wand tool
Hold down ALT. Click anywhere in the white area of the selection on your screen.
The radish is now the selected area and background has been taken away
You can now Hold down CTRL + ALT to drag a copy of the radish to its new location

Fine-tuning the Position of a Selected object

The Arrow Keys can be used to make minute adjustments to the position of a selection. The area must remain selected for this to work

With area selected use Arrow keys to move 1 pixel at a time in the chosen direction

With the area selected and Shift pressed, use Arrow keys to move 10 pixels at a time in the chosen direction

Cropping an Image

Gets rid of any area of an image you do not want

Select the cropping tool by clicking and dragging the mouse on the Marquee tool until you reach the cropping tool
Select the area you want to KEEP
When the marquee is positioned where you want it press Enter. This makes the cropping take effect
Click on File>Save
Click on Close

Finished Exercise