Learning how to separate out items and areas with Photoshop is extremely important, and this will come in handy in a lot of situations such as when you want to make adjustments in the exposure or color selectively without changing the rest of the image. You can also do other things selectively like when you want to dodge and burn or paint color casts in a defined area or section of an image.
There are tools that you can use when you want to select an entire area within an image. The desired results can be achieved by using any of the following:
- Magic wand
- New layers
- Grouping layers
- Layer mask
Making Selections Using the Magic Wand
By itself, the magic wand will not be able to separate an item or area. If you have made a selection using the magic wand and performed the desired adjustments, such as curves adjustment, or use the paint brush, only the area or portion that you have selected will be affected. However, such adjustment or change will result in the permanent alteration of the information for that portion or area. It would be better if you use an adjustment layer for the selection or make a new layer of the specific selection.
Fundamental Operation
You should begin the task by making sure that you have the right tool for the job. You can choose the appropriate tool by selecting it from the tool palette or using the keyboard command (Type W). Once you have engaged the selected tool, the icon of the selected tool is depressed and shaded, which means that the said tool is active.
As soon as you select the Wand tool, the next thing that you will do is “mark out” the section or area of the same color density. When you click on a section of the image using the Wand tool, the application will automatically create a feathered selection which will cover the adjacent pixels with the same color values as the one that you have clicked. You can control the degree by which the similarity of the pixels will be established by working on the fill-box which is referred to as Tolerance. It is located somewhere at the top of the screen.
You can use the anti-aliased to control the application so that there are no defined and hard lines and as such it automatically feathers your selection. When you select Contiguous, the select tool will only pick out pixels that are similar but only when these pixels are located right next to the one that you have clicked. On the other hand, if the Photoshop tool is not activated, then it will pick out parts of the images that have the same pixels.
When you engage “Use All Layers,” the tool will make the selection on all the layers and not just on that layer that you are currently working on. This is also a nifty way of activating other tools like the “Rubber Stamp” tool.
You can make the necessary adjustments in the “Tolerance” until the desired selection is obtained, and once you have achieved this, you can now move on and use the selection techniques in order for you to make the finer adjustments to what you’ve already worked on.
Grow
You can increase the size of the current selection by proceeding to Select/Grow. This modification is useful, although it only works off from the current layer that you are working on. Thus, you are better off when you use the “wand” tool and adjusting the “Tolerance” tool.
Similar
This modification technique, which is activated when you click Select/Similar, is actually a very useful Photoshop tool. This technique is somewhat similar to the “Contiguous” tool when you were making your first selection. It picks out areas or portions of the image that are similar and it is only applied on the layer that you are currently working on.
Feather
The “Feather” is generally the same as the original option in the “Wand” tool. However, it is a useful modification tool even in cases where its counterpart is used to begin a particular task. The “Feather” is generally similar to “Anti-aliased” although it offers more control and you can even use it to enhance the job done using the “Anti-aliased” where hard and defined lines are prevented. The modification is engaged by proceeding to Select/Feather, and it gives you the option of designating the radius of the pixel of your feathering. M.A.H.
