Making a selection is one of the most important skills in Photoshop.

Selections are essential in understanding how Photoshop manipulates the image. In other applications, when you select an element, you select an object. These application see each of elements as objects while photo shop receives the components of the image as pixels. Therefore, when you make a selection in Photoshop, it selects the pixels based on a particular selection technique.

The rectangular marquee tool is used to create rectangular or square selection. To use this tool: 1. On the tool box click on the rectangular marquee tool. 2.Drag the mouse diagonally to create the rectangular selection. To create a square selection, hold down the SHIFT key while dragging the mouse. 3. To move the selection, place the mouse pointer over the selection and drag the mouse. 4. To nudge (move in small increments) the selection, press one of the arrow keys.

5. To adjust the point of origin of the selection, hold down the SPACEBAR and place the start of the selection to the desired position.

The Elliptical Marquee tool is used to create eliptical or circular selection. To use this tool: 1. On the tool box, right click on the rectangular marquee tool is used to display the hidden tools. 2. Select the elliptical marquee tool. 3. Drag the mouse diagonally to create the rectangular selection. To create circular selection, hold down the SHIFT key while dragging the mouse.

1. Create a selection. 2. Click on the move tool. 3. Drag the selected area.

1. Create a selection. 2. Click on the move tool. 3. Hold down the ALT key while dragging the selection.

The lasso tools create selections that are irregularly shapped. There are three types of lasso tools: Lasso tool Polygonal lasso tool Magnetic lasso tool

1. Select the lasso tool. 2. Drag the mouse to define the selection.

1. Select the polygonal lasso tool. 2. Click the mouse to define the edge of the selection. 3. Continue clicking until the desired area is covered. 4. Click on the first point or double click the mouse to end he selection.

1. Select the magnetic lasso tool. 2. Click on the area where you want to start the selection. 3. Slide the mouse and allow the tool to find the edges. 4. Click on the first point to end the selection.

The magic wand tool selects similarly colored areas in the image. The extent to which the shade of color will be included is defined by the value of the tolerance. By default value of the tolerance is 32. The tolerance value of 32 indicates that the magic wand will select the color you clicked plus 32 lighter and 32 darker shade of the color.

1. Click on the magic wand. 2. From the options bar, specify change the settings of the options . Tolerance defines the sensitivity of the magic wand (range: 0-255). Anti-alias creates smooth selection edge. Contiguous selects adjacent areas of the same color. Sample All Layers selects areas based on the visible colors of all the layers. 3. Click on the area you want to select.

All selection tools have some common options. These options are:
To create or subtract selection: 1. Click on the selection tools.(excluding the move tool) 2. Make a selection. 3. Click on one of the selection options fom the Options bar.

Most programs in the market today have an undo one more actions you have applied on your file. Photoshop extends the Undo feature by storing each action as a history state. A history state is an action that modifies the appearance and characteristics of the file. Switching from palette is not considered as a history state. These actions when performed will not be stored. The history states are organized in the history palette. By default, the history palette stores the twenty (20) recent actions applied on the file.

Transforming the selection includes resizing, rotating, sewing, disorting, creating perspective, etc. There are two ways to transform the selection:

Using Free Transform Using Edit Transform Command

1. Create a selection. 2. Press CTRL + T. This will display the transformation points. 3. Transform the selection by dragging any of the transformation points. 4. Click on the move tool and click on the APPLY button.

1. Create a selection. 2. From menu bar select the command edit transform. 3. Select a transformation command. 4. Adjust the setting on the Options bar.

The distort command stretches the selection in all directions. 1. Create a selection. 2. From menu bar select the EDIT TRANSFORM PERSPECTIVE. 3. Drag the points to create the perspective. 4. Press ENTER key to transform the selection.

The perspective command creates one point perspective. To add perspective to the selection: 1. Create a selection. 2. From the menu bar, select the EDIT TRANSFORM PERSPECTIVE. 3. Drag the points to create a line perspective. 4. Press ENTER key to transform the selection.

The warp command manipulates the shape of the selection. It can convert the selection into the predefined wrap shapes or manipulates selection into any shape using the custom option.

1. Create a selection. 2. From menu bar select the EDIT TRANSFORM WARP. 3. From the options bar select CUSTOM or any predefined warp shapes. 4. Drag the wrap points to modify the shape. 5. Press ENTER key to apply the wrap shape.

1. Create a selection. 2. Click on the Move tool and adjust the position of the selection. 3. Click on the rectangular marquee tool. 4. Hold down the ALT key while dragging a new selection.

Cropping is the process of removing unwanted portions of the image. The purpose is to create order, balance, and focus on the image. Cropping can be done by using the crop tool and the crop command.

1. Create a selection. 2. From the menu bar, click on the IMMAGE CROP command. Using the Crop Tool 3. From the tool box, click on the crop tool. 4.Drag over the image to create a marquee. 5. Adjust the size of the marquee to fit all the elements you want to retain. 6. Press ENTER key to complete cropping the image.

Prepared by:
Jopat