Explore the intricacies of selection tools used for image editing. Learn how to use different tools like the rectangular marquee tool, the elliptical marquee tool, and single row/column marquee tool, and how they can be employed to edit and modify image elements.
Key Insights
- The rectangular and elliptical marquee tools are fundamental selection tools used for creating rectangular or elliptical selections within an image. Holding down the shift key while dragging can create perfect squares or circles.
- Selection tools come with several options like creating new selections, adding to existing selections, subtracting from selections, and intersecting with current selections. These options provide flexibility for various editing tasks.
- Feathering is a useful feature when you want a smooth transition between selected and non-selected areas. It creates a fading effect around the selection which can be ideal for images that don't have precise edges.
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In this video, we'll be going over selection tools. Let's start by opening our file, and for this video, we'll be working outside of Lesson 2, instead selecting **Crane Hook.jpeg**.
As we can see, we have a crane hook in front of a blue sky background. Throughout this video, we'll be removing this hook from the background behind it and going over selection tools. So, as always, let's start first by dragging our **Background** into a new layer, and we'll retitle this layer **Hook Removed**, then hit **Enter**. Next, we'll retitle our **Background** layer **Hook Original**, and lock this layer.
In addition, we'll hide the **Hook Original** layer so that it doesn't show through when we remove the blue background. Finally, let's select our **Hook Removed** layer. Selection tools can be helpful in selecting different objects or different parts of our image.
They can be found in the **Tools Bar**, within the first three icons. So let's begin. We'll start first with the **Rectangular Marquee Tool**.
The **Rectangular Marquee Tool** essentially works the same way as the **Rectangle Tool**—if you click and drag, you'll make a rectangle, or if you hold **Shift**, you'll make a square. Let's release our click, and we can see from the dashed border that this is our selection. All the pixels inside fall into the selection.
If we want to create a new selection, we can simply click and make a new selection somewhere else. Each time we click, we'll lose our current selection. Since we want to remove the blue background from this image, we can hit **Delete** on our keyboard. We've now deleted the pixels inside the rectangle.
To deselect, we'll hit **Ctrl + D** on the keyboard, and we can move on to new selection tools. Next, let's hold the **Rectangular Marquee Tool** and select the **Elliptical Marquee Tool** found in the **Tools Gallery**. The **Elliptical Marquee Tool** works the same way as the **Rectangular Marquee Tool**—if we click and drag, we'll make a selection.
In addition, let's talk about some of the options for our **Elliptical Marquee Tool** and other selection tools. The first thing we'll see selected is **New Selection**, which is highlighted. This means that each time we click, we'll create a new selection.
In addition, if we select the next option, **Add to Selection**, from the **Options Bar**, each time we click and drag, we will continue adding to our selection. If we check the next option, **Subtract from Selection**, each time we click and drag, we will subtract from the selection we've made. Finally, our last option is **Intersect with Selection**.
If we click and drag, we'll see that it creates an intersection between our new selection and our previous selection. Let's go back to **New Selection**, and we'll create a new selection. Next, let's discuss **Feathering**.
Currently, our **Feathering** is set to **0**, meaning that there's a specific line where a pixel is either inside or outside the selection. With **Feathering**, we essentially fade between selected and unselected pixels. For example, if we replace the **0** with **50 pixels** and hit **Enter**, then create a new selection and hit **Delete**, then **Ctrl + D** to deselect, we'll see that the feathering creates a soft edge around the selection.
If we zoom in, we'll see that it has a fade effect—or feathered effect—around our selection. This can be helpful when you don’t have precise edges and want to fade into the selection. Let’s zoom back out and move on to the other two tools.
Our last two options in this **Tools Gallery** are the **Single Row Marquee Tool** and **Single Column Marquee Tool**. If we click, we'll see that a line appears on our image. If we release, it may seem like the line has vanished, but if we zoom in, we can see it's still there. The **Single Row Marquee Tool** selects only one line of pixels. If we hit **Delete** and then **Ctrl + D**, we'll see that line of pixels has been removed.
Let's hit **Ctrl + Z** to undo and keep those pixels in our image, then zoom back out. Finally, let's save our work by going to **File > Save As**, and we'll type **Crane Hook Removed**, making sure it's a Photoshop file. Then click **Save** and **OK**. In the next video, we'll continue going through selection tools and removing our crane hook from the blue background.
See you there!