How to highlight in Photoshop. All about selection tools in Photoshop

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One of the main problems when creating a photo montage is certainly the high-quality selection of an object in one photograph and transferring it to another image. And if there are objects containing hair or animal fur, then the problem is even greater, since not all Photoshop users know how to correctly select such an object.
In this lesson on working with photoshop We will show you a simple way to separate an object from a background that has an almost uniform background with slight color transitions. It would seem nothing complicated, you can apply " Magic wand"(W) or " Quick selection" (W), but the task is complicated by the fact that the color of the cut-out object very much matches the background color and, as you understand, this is the problem of selecting an object in the image. The technique outlined in this lesson, of course, does not claim to be universal, but in some cases it can greatly help you. So how to select an object in photoshop?

Let's open original image. How easy it is to notice a girl's hair is close in color to the background color. What's the best way to highlight them?

Let's create a duplicate layer - Ctrl+J.

Now our task is to select the girl along the contour. Let's go to "".

In the window of the same name, first of all, click on the middle icon depicting an eyedropper with a plus sign (make it active). Then we add a background around the girl right in the window preview color range, and then move the “Scatter” slider in one direction or another so that the result is White background and a "black" girl. This, of course, is ideal; regardless of the color range settings, you will be left with black spots on white and vice versa, white spots on black. You can see my result in the screenshot below. Click "Ok".

The selection we created in the previous step is loaded. As you can see, it is far from ideal.

In the "Layers" palette, click on the third icon from the left and a layer mask will be loaded onto the top layer in accordance with the previously created selection.

To see the layer mask itself directly, we must hold down the Alt key and click on the thumbnail of the mask itself. We will only work with her.

Our task is to make the background absolutely white, and the silhouette of the girl absolutely black. I select the "Brush" tool (B), the foreground color is white, the default brush settings and I paint over the black spots on the background around the girl (I selected them yellow). Please note that I am not going close to the outline of the girl; we will process these places in a different way.

After painting the background with white, set the brush blending mode to “Overlay” and “walk” the brush along the contour of the girl. At the same time, you will notice that the contour will be leveled, the black spots on the white background located next to the contour will disappear, and the black color of the girl herself will practically not suffer.

This is what I got after working with a brush. You see that the background around the girl has become white and the outline (from the background side) has become even.

Again, change the blending mode of the brush to “Normal”, but set the foreground color to black. We outline the girl’s figure in black, but do not get close to her contours.

As you probably already guessed, the next step is to switch the brush blending mode to “Overlay” and work with the brush inside the girl, along her contour. Thus, we did what we set out to do - create a clear black and white mask.

Now hold down the Alt key and click on the layer mask (a color image girls), then hold down the Ctrl key and click on the same mask again (load a selection) and invert the selection - Shift+Ctrl+I.

Left-click on the thumbnail of the top layer (with the mask), i.e. Make the layer itself active, not the mask. Press the key combination Ctrl+J - the selection will be copied to a new layer.

We remove the two bottom layers by simply dragging them onto the trash can icon (far right icon).

We get a girl separated from the background. You and I answered the question: “?”.

Compare the before and after picture of the girl photo processing in photoshop.

How to select an object in Photoshop and separate it from the background with simple and quick ways I will tell you which tools to use in this article.

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In my work, there are often situations in which it is necessary to transfer an object from one image to another. That is, separate part of the image from the background and then insert another background or insert the selected object onto another image.

For me, it is most convenient to do these actions in the program. This is a wonderful program for working with images, it has a lot of functionality. It is simple and intuitive to use.

Since I am often asked not only about how to highlight, but also about how to separate it from the background and into another picture.

And since you can’t tell about this in a nutshell, I decided to describe these actions in this article.

In the first part of the lesson, I will tell you about ways to select an object, and there are not so few of them, rather a lot.

pay attention to left panel tools in the program. Most top tool, resembling an arrow, is the move tool. We will need it in the case when we need to move the image or part of it.

Below, one by one, are three groups of selection tools.

The first group includes tools:

Rectangular area;
Oval area;
Horizontal line;
Vertical line.

Second group:

Lasso;
Straight-line lasso;
Magnetic lasso.

Third group:

Quick selection;
Magic wand.

In addition to these tools, you can select objects using a pen, color range, channels, mask, eraser, and so on. There are a lot of ways to highlight an object, and you can’t describe everything in one article; you can release a full-fledged video course on this topic, which will contain at least 10 lessons.

Today we will talk about the simplest, easiest ways. If you need to select a geometric object, such as an oval, circle, rectangle or square, then it is easiest to use the first group of tools.

Setting up tools

When choosing any tool, pay attention to the top panel, settings for the selected tool will appear there.

For example, for the oval tool, you can specify:

Normal selection;
Add to the selected area;
Subtract from the selected area;
Intersection of selected areas;
Shading size;
Smoothing;
Specify the exact selection size, width and height.

And this way you can customize all available tools.

Use the tooltips that appear when you hover your mouse over any instrument or its setting.

Selecting a circular area

For example, I need to highlight the disc from the cover of Chelpachenko’s course. To make a selection, I'll take the oval tool. Then you can simply select the object by holding down the Shift+Alt keys to create an even circle, and using the mouse to stretch the tool on the image.

Can you measure the diameter of the disk, indicate the dimensions on top panel and click on the picture with the mouse, a circle of the specified size will immediately appear.

Set the selection strictly along the contours of the disk. Click in the center of the selection right click and select - copy to new layer.

As a result, our disk appeared on a new layer, without a background. Now you can remove the main layer and trim the extra, empty part of the picture using trimming. To do this, open the image tab and select trimming from the list.

Selecting complex objects using a lasso group

Using the principle described above, you can select and free any objects from the background. For each image, you should select the tool that will allow you to make a selection quickly and efficiently.

For example, the rectangular lasso is useful for selecting shapes with straight sides that have many angles, such as a polygon, star, trapezoid, and so on. You can practice with this picture.

The magnetic lasso will fit well on any figure if there is a contrasting background. If the figure merges with the background, then it will be difficult for the magnetic lasso to determine the boundary along which to draw the section.

I cut out this figurine of a gymnast using a magnetic lasso in three minutes, so you can practice it too.

Quick selection

When your object is located on a plain background, it is quite easy to remove it using the quick selection tools. To remove the background from an image, remove the lock from the background layer and create a copy of the layer just in case.

Click on the background with the magic wand and press the “Delete” button. Save the object to PNG format. Example of selection.

How to select an object in Photoshop and separate it from the background, summary

I tried to tell you in detail how to select an object in Photoshop and separate it from the background. However, this is such a broad topic that several articles could be written about it. I understand that I might have missed something during the description process, and what I understand can be difficult for a beginner to understand.

So don't hesitate to ask questions in the comments. If you need advice, don’t be afraid to ask, I will answer everyone.

P.S. I am attaching a screenshot of my earnings in affiliate programs. And I remind you that anyone can earn money this way, even a beginner! The main thing is to do it correctly, which means learning from those who are already making money, that is, from Internet business professionals.

Knowing how to properly create and modify selections is an important skill for any Photoshop user. In this tutorial, we'll look at ways to modify selections in Photoshop. Here you can read about the main combinations that will greatly help simplify the process of working with selected areas; we will also look at selection tools, quick mask mode and Selection panel options.

Lesson details:

Estimated completion time: 23 minutes
Difficulty level: beginning
Program: Adobe Photoshop CS6

Final result:

1.Basic combinations:

The following combinations for creating selections are basic:

Add a new one to the selected area(by holding Shift and using the selection tools, you can add new areas to an existing area)
Subtract from a selection(to do this you need to hold Alt/Option)
Intersection area(to create an area where two selections intersect, you need to hold down Alt/Option and Shift at the same time)
Select all(using the combination Ctrl/Cmd + A you can select the entire canvas)
Deselect(to remove the selected area, you need to press Ctrl / Cmd + D)
Revert selection(to return the previous selected area, you need to press the combination Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + D)
Invert selection(by pressing the combination Ctrl / Cmd + Shift + I, you can swap the selected and unselected area)
Move the selected area can be used using the arrow keys on the keyboard
Selected area perfect circle or square can be created using the appropriate selection tools by holding Shift)
To create a selection, starting from the center need to hold Alt/Option

2.

The saved selections may be useful later. The selected area can be saved in channels. A selection saved in an alpha channel can be loaded at any time.

3.Transforming a selection

This function will allow you to edit only the selected area, but not the content of the layer. This can be very useful when we need to create a distorted selection. To change the selection, you can hold down the Ctrl/Cmd button and drag anchor points, or use the warp functions.

4.Quick Mask mode

This is very convenient function to make changes to the selected area. To enter the quick mask mode, you need to click on the button in the lower toolbar, or the Q key. You can exit the mode in a similar way. Once you've entered Quick Mask mode, you'll see that the selected area remains unchanged and the rest of the image is shaded red. You can change the settings by double-clicking on the quick mask icon. To create the desired selections, in this mode you must work with gradients and brushes. Using black as the foreground window color will allow you to remove an area from the selection, using white will help increase the selection.

5. Magic wand, quick selection, adjacent pixels and similar shades

Magic Wand is a classic Photoshop tool. It allows you to create a selection based on the similarity of neighboring pixels. The Quick Selection tool is hidden in the toolbar and is somewhat similar to the Magic Wand. This tool takes the form of brushes and with a simple stroke you can create the selection you want. The name of the tools: adjacent pixels (grow) and similar shades (similar) speaks for itself.

6. Feathering

This function allows you to soften the edges of a selected area. Depending on the desired softening, you need to select the appropriate size of the softened area.

7. Refine Edge

Very powerful tool to create a selection. Here you will find a lot useful settings, which are useful when creating selected areas with small details. Here you'll find Smart Radius, Clear Color, offset selection edge option, and more.

8. Shrink/Expand

The function allows you to shrink or expand the selected area by a specified number of pixels.

9. Border

One of the least common selection functions. It allows you to create a ring-like frame around your previous selection.

10. Color Range

One of many people's favorite selection tools. It is somewhat similar to a magic wand, but by working with it, you can more precisely control the selected area. The main difference from the magic wand is the ability to immediately see the resulting mask, as well as further adjustment of pixels that did not fall within the set threshold.

Translation – Duty room

Instructions

Use the Marquee tools to quickly select objects that have a regular elliptical or rectangular shape. Activate the Elliptical Marquee Tool or Rectangular Marquee Tool. Move the mouse cursor to one of the corners of the image fragment that you want to select. Click left button. Move the cursor to create a selection area of the desired size. Release the mouse button.

Adjust the created selection area if necessary. From the menu, select Select and Transform Selection. Move the mouse around the edges of the displayed frame to achieve desired result. Double-click inside the selection area to commit your changes.

To quickly select an object filled with one color or a group of similar colors, as well as a single object located on a uniform background, use the Magic Wand Tool. Activate it using the toolbar button. Set the appropriate value for the Tolerance parameter in the panel at the top. Click inside an object or a uniform background. If the background was processed, invert the selection by pressing Ctrl+Shift+I or selecting Select and Inverse from the menu.

Use the Quick Selection Tool to use the smart selection mechanism. After activating the tool, select the appropriate brush by clicking on the Brush control located in the top panel. While holding down the left mouse button, drag the cursor over different areas of the selected image fragment. Spread the selection over the entire object.

Use Lasso tools for quick, but not always accurate, selections complex objects. Use the Lasso Tool if you want to create a rough selection. Just circle desired area with the mouse cursor along the contour while holding down the left key. Using the Polygonal Lasso Tool, select fragments bounded by straight lines. The Magnetic Lasso Tool is the most “smart” in this group. It automatically recognizes the boundaries of heterogeneous image fragments. It can be used, for example, to highlight the outline of a face in a photograph.

Start using Quick Mask to select objects or groups of objects with complex shapes. Activate the mask by pressing the Q key or the Edit in Quick Mask Mode button on the toolbar. Set the Foreground color to black. Select the Paint Bucket Tool. Click anywhere on the image. Activate the Brush tool. Configure its operation parameters using the top panel controls. Install White color foreground.

In the process of editing images in any graphic editor, one of the most frequently repeated operations is, perhaps, selecting and cutting out objects, performed for the purpose of moving, transforming, correcting, extracting from the background, etc.

There's a lot on the Internet graphic editors, but having thoroughly learned how to select an object in Photoshop, it will not be difficult to cope with this in all other programs or online services.

If we say that in terms of variety and convenience of selection methods, Photoshop has no equal, this would not be an exaggeration (at least not an obvious one).

You can select manually by tracing the outline of an object or drawing a selection area with a brush, or automatically using standard selection path shapes and other “magic” tools. In addition, Photoshop uses masks, color channels, filters and special plugins to select fragments.

However, despite the variety, simplicity and convenience of special selection tools in Photoshop, according to many experienced Photoshoppers, there is no more accurate and better way than using the Pen tool.

On the contour of the object carefully outlined with a pen, right-click and select the “Make Selection” command, then in the dialog box that opens, set the feathering radius, check/uncheck the “Anti-aliasing” checkbox and click OK. That's it, the selection is ready.

Automatic selection of an object in Photoshop comes down to stretching a frame along the contour of the element if it has a rectangular or oval shape, and in some tools to clicking (clicking) the mouse inside the selected area.

Rectangular and round selections

The selection tools with rectangles, ellipses (circles) and narrow stripes (lines) are collected on the panel in a group with the tooltip “Rectangular Marquee Tool”, which, in addition to the above, includes the tools “Oval region” (Elliptical Marquee Tool), “Area horizontal line" (Single Row Marquee Tool) and "Vertical line area" (Single Column Marquee Tool).

To make a selection, you need to click where necessary with the mouse and stretch the frame required sizes and release the button - the selection is ready. If you drag the mouse while holding down Shift key, you get a square (or circle), and if with Alt key, the frame will begin to stretch from the center of the figure, and not from the corner or edge.

The next very useful “if” is associated with the spacebar, which, by pressing it during a selection (without releasing the Shift key), you can interrupt the process of stretching the frame and move the entire path to better “aim”, then release the spacebar and continue the selection.

And the last “if” refers to the cursor, which changes its appearance inside the selected area, indicating that the entire outline can now be moved.

All selections in the panel above have the same settings, except for the oval selection, which has an Anti-aliased mode to smooth out opacity transitions at the edges.

Complex selection paths

Once you've figured out whether your selection outlines are rectangular or oval (round), you can move on to more intelligent selection tools.

For elements with complex contours, a group of tools with a hint “Polygonal Lasso Tool” is provided at your service, which, in addition to the above, includes the “Lasso Tool” and “Magnetic Lasso Tool”.

A simple Lasso is like a pencil. By pressing the left mouse button, draw a lasso around the desired area (object) and release the button. The circuit will automatically close wherever you release the button. If the outline is unsuccessful, you can, without releasing the button, press the Esc key, thus removing the selection, and “throw the lasso” again.

By turning on the "Rectilinear/Polygonal Lasso", you outline the object not with a smooth, continuous line, but with an angular outline, sequentially clicking the mouse from point to point, between which straight lines are drawn. To close a contour, it is not necessary to combine the beginning with the end point - it is enough to get close to it so that a circle appears next to the cursor, hinting that you can safely click - the contour will close. You can create a contour without closing it completely double click mouse or with Ctrl key.

If the line goes in the wrong direction, the Esc key will help out, but it’s better to use Delete key, which deletes the last segment of the contour. With the Alt key pressed during the selection, both lassos change roles.

If you don’t care how to cut out an object in Photoshop, as long as the selection is more or less high-quality and, most importantly, fast, then, perhaps, Magnetic Lasso will cope with this in the best possible way.

The wise "magnet lasso" recognizes the line itself maximum difference in color, brightness or contrast and “sticks” to this line. All we need to do is click the mouse on the border of the selection object and simply “lasso” it around it, without bothering with the details. Unlike conventional lasso, a magnetic lasso needs to be given the width (width) of the zone (strip) that it must analyze when determining the boundary of the selected object. The circuit of the magnetic tool is closed in the same way as with conventional lasso.

"Magic" tools

Another sweet pair of selection tools hidden under one toolbar button includes the Magic Wand Tool and Quick Selection. These tools allow you to select areas of the same color or similar colors in an image.

Unlike the familiar “Fill” tool (a bucket of paint) with the same settings, it does not fill areas with a different color, but selects them. By clicking the mouse on any point, the Magic Wand analyzes the color around it and selects all adjacent areas of the same color, provided that the “Contiguous” mode is selected in the tool settings. Otherwise, the selection will spread to all suitable areas throughout the image.

The Quick Selection tool works on the same principle, only here the selection area is painted with its own brush with customizable parameters (size, hardness, spacing, angle and shape).

There are many reasons why using standard tools selection in certain situations is inappropriate or undesirable, so it is advisable to figure out how to select an object in Photoshop in such a capricious case.

To do this, they use a group of erasing tools (erasers), among which there are also “wizards”. The group includes the Eraser Tool itself, the Background Erser Tool and the Magic Eraser Tool.

The essence of selecting objects using erasers is obvious and simple: everything around the selected element is completely (or with smooth transition) is erased, after which retrieving the object will no longer be difficult.

The "Eraser" works like a brush or a pencil, so their settings are the same. The principle of operation of the "Magic Eraser" is the same as that of the "Magic Wand" tool, only the eraser does not create a selection, but removes areas of the same color from the drawing or part of it.

Although the “Background Eraser” is not magical, if you show it a sample (click the mouse over the area to be deleted) and, while holding the button, trace the outline of the object, it will delete exactly what you need, regardless of the complexity of the border, and will even generously allow you to “brazenly” "climb the cursor-sight onto an object.

As alternative option To select by color, you can view the “Color Range” command in the “Select” menu. This command will open the settings window for this function with a small copy of the image in the center. The color that should be highlighted is indicated by clicking with the mouse (eyedropper) on the thumbnail or on the image itself. You can click until you lose your pulse until the selected shade suits you, and if you click with the Shift key, the new color will be added to the previously selected ones, and clicking with the Alt key, on the contrary, excludes the specified shade from candidates for selection (the same is done pipettes with +/-).

To control the selection of a multi-colored area, you need to select the “Selection” radio button under the thumbnail.

Extracting an object from the background

Photoshop does an excellent job of separating an object from the background using the “Extract” command in the menu. This command takes us to a separate dialog box worthy of the status of a mini-selection editor. We are required to select a tool similar to a felt-tip pen at the top left, set the thickness of the stroke and outline the object, thus showing the program where the border between the element to be separated and the background will be. The border must be inside the drawn line bordering the object. Having closed the outline, select the paint bucket (Fill Tool) and fill the object by clicking inside (not outside!) the drawn outline. Only after this the “OK” button will allow you to click and be convinced of the extraordinary capabilities of the Extract filter.

Selection using color channels

To highlight objects with a very complex configuration, they sometimes resort to using color channels, since it turns out that selecting an object in Photoshop is possible not only in standard ways.

To do this, go to the “Channels” tab in the layers panel and select the most contrasting (usually blue) channel. Then duplicate the layer of the selected channel, go to “Image” > “Correction” (Adjustments) > “Brightness”/“Contrast” (Contrast) and enhance both parameters, extremely darkening the object and “whitening” the background. If necessary, you can make refinements with a black or white brush.

Next, the image is inverted (Invert) by selecting this command in the same menu “Image” > “Correction”. Now all that remains is to click with the Ctrl key pressed on the channel copy layer and, “closing its eye,” return to the “Layers” tab in the RGB mode, where a neat and precise selection is already waiting for you.

Selecting with Quick Mask

You can also select/cut out an object using the Quick selection tool located at the very bottom of the toolbar. The selection area here is simply painted in black (but the mask is red) using regular brushes. Partial selection for shading its borders is obtained not only by varying hardness, opacity and brush pressure, but also by painting with different shades gray. In mask mode, you can also apply a gradient fill from black to white or vice versa.

Often there is a need for some reason to slightly move an object in the image. It is better to carry out such an operation in conditions of a relatively uniform background, so that it is easier to “patch the hole” in the old place of the displaced fragment. It turns out that there are programs in which this is done almost automatically “without noise and dust.” For example, you can move CS6 "invisibly" to another location using the Content-Aware Move Tool, which is located in the Spot Healing Brush tool group.

To do this, you need to select the object in any way and simply move it to the desired place, and the program will make sure that there are no traces left in the background (at least obvious ones) former place residence of the "immigrant". If it gets a little messy, you can help the Content-Aware Move tool “cover its tracks” by choosing Fill from the Edit menu and selecting Content-Aware from the Use list.

Refine the edges of the selection

Starting with version CS5, Photoshop introduces a powerful Refine Edge tool, located among other options in the settings panel of all selection tools. Using this tool, you can set the width of the edge detection area (Radius setting and Smart Radius) and adjust the offset, smoothing, feathering, and contrast parameters of the edges of the selected object.