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Making and refining selections

Michael Ninness


This video shows you how to use the new Quick Selection tool in Photoshop. You also learn how to use the new Refine Edge option to preview any selection in a variety of ways, and how to modify properties of the selection edge.

Requirements

To follow along with this article, you will need the following software and files:

Watch this tutorial in the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Video Workshop.

Making selections

  1. In Photoshop, choose File>Open and choose the Product_Shot.psd file. Click Open.
  2. To use the Quick Selection tool, click the Quick Selection tool in the Tools panel (the fourth icon down) or press the W key on your keyboard.

  3. Drag within the handbag image, around the edges. The tool automatically snaps to the edges of the object, based on the pixel color of your initial selection (see Figure 1).

    Select the handbag with the Quick Selection tool.

    Figure 1: Select the handbag with the Quick Selection tool.

  4. Drag the handbag straps to add those parts to the selection. By default, dragging a separate part of the image that hasn't been selected yet, will add that to your selection.

  5. Hold down the Alt /Option key and click to select the white areas in between the handbag straps and exclude them from the selection (see Figure 2). Just as with any other selection tool in Photoshop, you can hold down the Alt/Option key and click areas that you don't want to select.

    Exclude the white areas between the handbag straps

    Figure 2: Exclude the white areas between the handbag straps.

  6. It can be difficult working with small areas like this. Press Ctrl/Ctrl and the plus keys to switch to the Zoom tool momentarily to make detailed selections easier.
  7. Press the Left Bracket ([) key to decrease the brush size of the Quick Selection tool, and hold down the Alt/Option key and click to continue to deselect the white areas around the handbag straps. You can make the brush size of the Quick Selection tool larger by pressing the Right Bracket (]) key.

  8. Zoom back out by pressing Ctr/Cmd and minus keys.

    Photoshop CS3 features a new option that you can use with the Quick Selection tool, as well as with all the other selection tools. Once you have made a selection, a button appears in the options bar called Refine Edge and it's really handy.

  9. In the options bar above the Document window, choose Refine Edge to open the Refine Edge dialog box and open a preview window for your selection (see Figure 3).

    The Refine Edge dialog box has options to improve your selection

    Figure 3: The Refine Edge dialog box has options to improve your selection.

  10. At the bottom of the dialog box, notice the icons for viewing your mask against different backgrounds:
    • The left button shows it against the original background.
    • The second left view is a Quick Mask view.
    • The middle option places your mask against a black background and is usually the most useful tool for seeing how accurate your mask really is.
    • The fourth option shows the mask against a white background.
    • The right option shows just the mask, as it would appear in an alpha channel.
  11. Select the fourth button, On White Mask. You can see that the Refine Edge command created a soft, anti-aliased selection. Now you can start changing the nature of the edge.
  12. Change the Feather amount to 0.5 pixels.
  13. Use the Contract/Expand slider to contract the mask to about -35%.

  14. Increase the Contrast to about 45% so that the edges aren't quite so soft. These changes alone greatly improve the edge of the selection.

    This is much easier than previous versions of Photoshop, where you would have had to enter Quick Mask mode and use a series of filters and layers masks to achieve the same effect. With the Refine Edge feature, you can make all of these changes at once without committing to them until you are satisfied with the selection.

  15. Click OK. This takes you back to your original selection view.

  16. Make sure the Layers palette is open. If not, choose Window > Layers to open it. To separate the selection from the background layer, click the Add Layer Mask button at the bottom of the Layers palette. This converts your selection to a mask and removes the background (see Figure 4).

    Adding a Layer mask removes the background from the selection.

    Figure 4: Adding a Layer mask removes the background from the selection.

  17. To complete the image, click the Layer Style button (the fx icon) at the bottom of the Layers palette and choose Drop Shadow from the pop-up menu. This opens the Layer Styles dialog box.

  18. Lower the Opacity to 50% and click OK.

    Now you have your finished selection, fined-tuned with the help of the Refine Edge feature.

Where to go from here

For more information and additional tutorials, visit the Adobe Design Center.