gluwater
Mar-21-2006, 03:05 AM
Photoshop Masking & Compositing, by Katrin Eismann
Chapter 3, The Essential Select Menu
Chapter 3 describes the tools and options in the Select menu explaining how and when to use the specific tools. Even though we need to make selections in just about everything we do in PS most people never really delve into the Select Menu or understand the options held within.
The first four options in the Select menu are probaly the most used and should be accesed by their keyboard shortcuts to be more efficient.
They are:
Select All (Cmd + A) [Ctrl + A]
Deselect (Cmd + D) [Ctrl + D]
Reselect (Cmd + Shift + D) [Ctrl + Shift + D]
Inverse (Cmd + Shift + I) [Ctrl + Shift + I]Select All does exactly what it states. It selects the entire active layer, active channel, or the entire document if it has only one layer. The example Katrin uses is one I never thought about before but makes sense. When making a composite you are usually only using parts of many images that have been placed in the same document. Photoshop keeps all the data of the image, even if it is outside of the canvas. To get rid of anything outside of the canvas to decrease your file size you can Select>Select All then Image>Crop to crop off all the image data outside the canvas. Before doing this I would be sure you will not need any of the data outside of the canvas.
Deselect can be a timesaver when using its keyboard shortcut. How many times have you needed to deselect an active selection and your current tool was not a selection tool, or you click outside the active selection just to accidentally create a new selection? I know I have. I never really thought of using the shortcut but it really does make sense to use it.
Many times when selecting many things at the same time it is easy to accidentally lose your selection and then you have to make it all over again right? Nope, just use Reselect and it will reselect the last active selection.
Inverse, when used with the magic wand can make complicated selections very easy as long as there is a solid easily defined backgound in the image. You just select the solid background with the magic wand and then use inverse to select your subject. Here is an example where I wanted to sharpen my friend without adding noise to the background. So I selected the background with the magic wand and then did an inverse to select him.
http://gluwater.smugmug.com/photos/60730520-L.jpg
The next selection tool is Color Range. Katrin calls it "the smart Magic Wand". It allows you to make a selection similar to how the magic wand does but it gives you a preview of what you are selecting so you can get a more accurate initial selection. It is important to understand the options in the Color Range dialogue box to control your selection.
http://gluwater.smugmug.com/photos/60731626-L.jpg
When you choose Select>Color Range Sampled Colors is choosen in the pull down menu at the top of the dialogue box . The foreground color is referenced and used to make the initial selection. This selection can then be changed by using the eyedroppers. The eyedropper on the left is used to make an initial selection. The middle eyedropper is used to add colors and the right eyedropper is used to subtract colors. Instead of haveing to switch between eyedroppers you can just select the left eyedropper and Shift + click to add colors or Alt + click to subtract colors. When in Color Range, by right clicking you can change the sample size of the eyedropper to point sample, 3x3 average, or 5x5 average.
The Fuzziness slider is often mistaken for Tolerance like in the magic wand. They are similar but in it not only controls which pixels will be selected it also controls how much of a pixel will be selected to give more realistic color and tonal transitions. To make accurate color selections Katrin suggests to use a smaller fuzziness setting and sample often when selecting large areas of similar color. When selecting more complex areas of color use a larger fuzziness and select fewer points.
http://gluwater.smugmug.com/photos/60883542-L.jpg
The Selection Preview has 5 options with the default being none.
Greyscale appears as if it was a channel mask.
Black Matte views with a black background.
White Matte views with a white background.
Quick Mask appears as it would in Quick Mask mode.Each option can be useful with different images, play with them and find out which you prefer. The following screen shot shows what greyscale looks like selecting a yellow flower.
http://gluwater.smugmug.com/photos/60885095-L.jpg
In the Color Range dialogue box in the Select drop down menu you can choose to select default colors. When you do this PS selects pixels with the majority of it being that color. Katrin uses the example of reducing the red from the face in a portrait with the help of a hue/saturation Adjustment Layer.
Grow and Similar
These two commands select like pixels in an image. They both require you to have an active selection and they use the tolerences set in the Magic Wand settings. They differ because grow only selects contiguous pixels where similar selects non-contiguous pixels based on color and tone throughout the image.
Feather
Feather softens the edges of a selection but has a big downfall. It does not give you a preview of how much it is feathering. Katrin gives a helpful alternative to the feather command, using Quick Mask and Gaussian Blur.
There is more to the chapter that I will add in the next couple of days, I just wanted to get something posted.
Chapter 3, The Essential Select Menu
Chapter 3 describes the tools and options in the Select menu explaining how and when to use the specific tools. Even though we need to make selections in just about everything we do in PS most people never really delve into the Select Menu or understand the options held within.
The first four options in the Select menu are probaly the most used and should be accesed by their keyboard shortcuts to be more efficient.
They are:
Select All (Cmd + A) [Ctrl + A]
Deselect (Cmd + D) [Ctrl + D]
Reselect (Cmd + Shift + D) [Ctrl + Shift + D]
Inverse (Cmd + Shift + I) [Ctrl + Shift + I]Select All does exactly what it states. It selects the entire active layer, active channel, or the entire document if it has only one layer. The example Katrin uses is one I never thought about before but makes sense. When making a composite you are usually only using parts of many images that have been placed in the same document. Photoshop keeps all the data of the image, even if it is outside of the canvas. To get rid of anything outside of the canvas to decrease your file size you can Select>Select All then Image>Crop to crop off all the image data outside the canvas. Before doing this I would be sure you will not need any of the data outside of the canvas.
Deselect can be a timesaver when using its keyboard shortcut. How many times have you needed to deselect an active selection and your current tool was not a selection tool, or you click outside the active selection just to accidentally create a new selection? I know I have. I never really thought of using the shortcut but it really does make sense to use it.
Many times when selecting many things at the same time it is easy to accidentally lose your selection and then you have to make it all over again right? Nope, just use Reselect and it will reselect the last active selection.
Inverse, when used with the magic wand can make complicated selections very easy as long as there is a solid easily defined backgound in the image. You just select the solid background with the magic wand and then use inverse to select your subject. Here is an example where I wanted to sharpen my friend without adding noise to the background. So I selected the background with the magic wand and then did an inverse to select him.
http://gluwater.smugmug.com/photos/60730520-L.jpg
The next selection tool is Color Range. Katrin calls it "the smart Magic Wand". It allows you to make a selection similar to how the magic wand does but it gives you a preview of what you are selecting so you can get a more accurate initial selection. It is important to understand the options in the Color Range dialogue box to control your selection.
http://gluwater.smugmug.com/photos/60731626-L.jpg
When you choose Select>Color Range Sampled Colors is choosen in the pull down menu at the top of the dialogue box . The foreground color is referenced and used to make the initial selection. This selection can then be changed by using the eyedroppers. The eyedropper on the left is used to make an initial selection. The middle eyedropper is used to add colors and the right eyedropper is used to subtract colors. Instead of haveing to switch between eyedroppers you can just select the left eyedropper and Shift + click to add colors or Alt + click to subtract colors. When in Color Range, by right clicking you can change the sample size of the eyedropper to point sample, 3x3 average, or 5x5 average.
The Fuzziness slider is often mistaken for Tolerance like in the magic wand. They are similar but in it not only controls which pixels will be selected it also controls how much of a pixel will be selected to give more realistic color and tonal transitions. To make accurate color selections Katrin suggests to use a smaller fuzziness setting and sample often when selecting large areas of similar color. When selecting more complex areas of color use a larger fuzziness and select fewer points.
http://gluwater.smugmug.com/photos/60883542-L.jpg
The Selection Preview has 5 options with the default being none.
Greyscale appears as if it was a channel mask.
Black Matte views with a black background.
White Matte views with a white background.
Quick Mask appears as it would in Quick Mask mode.Each option can be useful with different images, play with them and find out which you prefer. The following screen shot shows what greyscale looks like selecting a yellow flower.
http://gluwater.smugmug.com/photos/60885095-L.jpg
In the Color Range dialogue box in the Select drop down menu you can choose to select default colors. When you do this PS selects pixels with the majority of it being that color. Katrin uses the example of reducing the red from the face in a portrait with the help of a hue/saturation Adjustment Layer.
Grow and Similar
These two commands select like pixels in an image. They both require you to have an active selection and they use the tolerences set in the Magic Wand settings. They differ because grow only selects contiguous pixels where similar selects non-contiguous pixels based on color and tone throughout the image.
Feather
Feather softens the edges of a selection but has a big downfall. It does not give you a preview of how much it is feathering. Katrin gives a helpful alternative to the feather command, using Quick Mask and Gaussian Blur.
There is more to the chapter that I will add in the next couple of days, I just wanted to get something posted.