Locked lesson.

Upgrade

About this lesson

The quick selection tool is useful for separating objects, people, or horizons from an image. Want to change the type of sky in the background? Want to extract text, or a logo from a flattened image? Want combine a great portrait photo with a different background? These are the tools you will need to begin these tasks. An essential tool for Photoshop users.

Exercise files

There are no related exercise files for this lesson, or we cannot provide them due to copyright issues.

Quick reference

Topic

How to use the Magic Wand and the Quick Selection tools to select objects and backgrounds in an image and how to fine-tune the selections. Also includes some good examples of when they should be used. 

When to use

The Quick Selection tool is useful for separating objects, people, or horizons from an image. Want to change the type of sky in the background? Want to extract text, or a logo from a flattened image? Want to combine a great portrait photo with a different background? These are the tools you will need to begin these tasks. An essential tool for PhotoShop users.

Instructions

The Magic Wand tool as a quick color selector

  • In the Tools bar on the left is the Quick Selection tool (4th down) . If you left click that button you will also get the option for the Magic Wand tool
  • The Magic Wand tool works by selecting similar colors to the one you choose
  • Once a selection has been made, the 'marching ants' will show you what has been selected.
  • To add to your selection hold down the Shift key (while still in the Magic Wand tool) and click on areas that are not within the 'marching ants' that you want in the selection
  • To subtract from you selection - use the ‘ALT’ or ‘Option’ key

Tolerance options in the Magic Wand tool

  • The 'tolerance' option (on the Options bar) will change how broad the color spectrum is that the Magic Wand will use to make its selection.
  • Lower tolerance means the more precise a color has to be.
  • Higher tolerance is where PhotoShop will choose a broader color range from the selections (important when dealing with gradient images, like blue skies)
  • The contiguous checkbox tells PhotoShop whether to make only one selection (from the click point) or choose everything in the image that is in its color range (ending up with multiple selections)

The Quick Selection tool works like a brush to create a sample ‘range’ where the color range is much broader

  • In the Tools bar on the left is the Quick Selection tool (4th down)
  • Use the brush options to choose the size, shape and hardness of the brush
  • Use the brush to paint across the area that you want to select
  • To add to your selection hold down the Shift key
  • To subtract from you selection - use the ALT or Option key

Tip

To fine tune your selection: zoom in and out of the image, increase or decrease the size of your brush, and use the Shift and ALT/Option keys to add or subtract from your selection.

 

Login to download
  • 00:04 Today we'll be looking at the difference between the Magic Wand tool
  • 00:07 and the Quick Selection tool, which at first glance, do the exact same thing.
  • 00:11 But they do have some key differences that'll help you out in your projects.
  • 00:15 Let me show you how these two tools work. So here we are in Adobe PhotoShop taking
  • 00:20 a look at the difference between the Magic Wand tool
  • 00:22 and the Quick Selection tool, both of which allow you to create selections from
  • 00:26 your images.
  • 00:27 These tools can be found in your Tools bar to the left.
  • 00:31 And if you hold down your mouse button,
  • 00:31 you'll have access to both of them: the Quick Selection tool and the Magic Wand
  • 00:35 tool.
  • 00:36 Let's start off with the Magic Wand tool. The Magic Wand tool is great if you're
  • 00:40 looking to select areas of your image
  • 00:42 that contains similar colors. For instance, if I want to select
  • 00:45 the background of this
  • 00:46 image, a simple click of my mouse will create an initial selection.
  • 00:50 And you can tell a selection has been created by the 'marching
  • 00:53 ants' that surround the area. Anything within the 'marching ants' has become your
  • 00:57 selection,
  • 00:58 while anything outside of it has been left untouched.
  • 01:01 Now in this case, you can tell that most of the yellow has been selected
  • 01:05 but there are some areas to the left of the model and to the right
  • 01:08 that were not included in the selection. And that's because the yellow where we
  • 01:11 sampled, right around here,
  • 01:13 is not the same yellow as it is at the top.
  • 01:16 They seem the same, but they're not. There are two things you can do to deal with
  • 01:20 this issue.
  • 01:21 Number one, you can hold in your Shift key which will allow you to
  • 01:24 add to your selection, and that's indicated by the plus button that appears on your
  • 01:28 cursor.
  • 01:28 When you see that you can simply click on the area that was not included
  • 01:32 and PhotoShop will add it to the selection.
  • 01:36 The same goes for the area to the right of this model.
  • 01:36 The second option deals with the tolerance value, which can be
  • 01:40 found on your Options bar at the top .
  • 01:42 If I de-select this selection with Command- or Control-'D'
  • 01:46 I'm able to adjust the tolerance to tell PhotoShop how specific or broad the
  • 01:50 selection is.
  • 01:51 For instance, if I decrease the tolerance somewhere around 10
  • 01:54 and then make another selection, you're going to notice that the selection
  • 01:58 isn't as large as it was before. Because PhotoShop is now looking for a more
  • 02:02 specific tone of yellow.
  • 02:04 But now if I go ahead and de-select, and this time increase the tolerance value,
  • 02:07 let's say to around eighty,
  • 02:08 and make the same selection, PhotoShop is now going to include
  • 02:12 a much broader tone of yellow in that selection.
  • 02:15 So the area that PhotoShop missed initially in our first selection
  • 02:19 has now been included, but you might notice that the area to the right
  • 02:22 is still not included. And this is because 'contiguous'
  • 02:26 is turned on. This will tell PhotoShop to only select areas
  • 02:30 that are connected. In a situation like this, because I don't want the yellow in
  • 02:34 the glasses selected,
  • 02:35 I want to keep contiguous on, then simply hold down my Shift key
  • 02:39 and click on the areas that were once selected. However, if you are in a
  • 02:43 situation where you want Photoshop to select all the sample colors,
  • 02:46 even if they're not connected, you can turn off contiguous.
  • 02:49 This time when I make the selection of the yellow, you're going to notice
  • 02:53 that all the yellows have been selected even though they're not connected.
  • 02:57 But, like I mentioned, for this example I want to turn contiguous on.
  • 03:00 Finally, just like you're able to add to your selection using the Shift key,
  • 03:04 you can also subtract from the selection using your ALT or
  • 03:08 Option key: Option on a Mac, ALT in Windows.
  • 03:11 When you hold that down, you're going to notice a minus sign right below your
  • 03:15 cursor.
  • 03:15 This will indicate anything you sample now will be subtracted from the selection.
  • 03:19 So in this case, if I want to subtract the area from the eyes
  • 03:24 I can simply move my cursor over top and click,
  • 03:27 and PhotoShop will subtract the area that was once selected in the eyes.
  • 03:30 And that's the Magic Wand tool, great for selecting areas of a
  • 03:34 similar color in your photos.
  • 03:36 But what if you run into a photo like this, which does contain similar colors,
  • 03:39 but they're spread out all over the image and contain different hues?
  • 03:43 Using the Magic Wand tool will definitely get the job done,
  • 03:46 but it will require quite a few steps. This is where I would grab the Quick
  • 03:50 Selection tool, which again can be found in your Tools bar to the left.
  • 03:54 What's nice about this tool is that it works very similar to the Magic Wand
  • 03:58 tool, but in a brush format.
  • 03:58 At the top on your Options bar
  • 04:02 you can control, just like you can with the brush tool, how large your brush is,
  • 04:06 the hardness and the spacing. In order to make a selection
  • 04:10 all you have to do is brush over top of the area that you want to include.
  • 04:14 For example, in this image, I want the entire sky selected, which includes the
  • 04:18 clouds as well.
  • 04:20 So, starting on the left, all I had to do was hold my mouse button down,
  • 04:23 and drag right across the sky. You are going to notice that PhotoShop is continuously
  • 04:28 sampling the areas that you are brushing on top of and including them in the selection.
  • 04:32 We're now left with a seamless selection of the sky and the clouds.
  • 04:36 And just like I covered with the Magic Wand tool,
  • 04:40 ALT or Option also allows you to de-select. You're going to notice
  • 04:44 on the left over here, some of the mountains were included in the selection.
  • 04:48 So first I want to decrease the size my brush. This can be quickly done with
  • 04:51 the left square bracket key on your keyboard.
  • 04:54 And when that's done, holding down Option on a Mac or ALT in Windows
  • 04:57 will show you the minus sign on your cursor.
  • 05:01 Now it's as simple as brushing over top the area that you want de-selected
  • 05:02 So if you're dealing with larger areas that contain
  • 05:07 different colors and different tones the Quick Selection tool will allow you to
  • 05:11 very easily brush over top those areas to include them in the selection.
  • 05:14 And just like I cover to my Photo Composition tutorial
  • 05:18 you can use the 'refined edge' feature to get a much more specific selection
  • 05:22 if you're dealing with hair, trees or fur. And that's the difference between the
  • 05:26 Magic Wand tool
  • 05:27 and the Quick Selection tool in PhotoShop.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.

Gift this course