Perfecting squares and circles with Shift and Alt (Option on the Mac)

Sometimes you need to create a perfectly square or circular selection. To do so, simply press the Shift key after you begin dragging. After you make your selection, release the mouse button and then release the Shift key. You can also set the aspect ratio to 1:1 in the Tool Options.

When you’re making an elliptical selection, making the selection from the center outward is often easier. To draw from the center, first click the mouse button where you want to position the center, press Alt (Option on the Mac), and then drag. After making your selection, release the mouse button and then release the Alt (Option on the Mac) key.

If you want to draw from the center outward and create a perfect circle or square, press the Shift key as well. After you make your selection, release the mouse button and then release the Shift+Alt (Shift+Option on the Mac) keys.

Applying Marquee options

The Marquee tools offer additional options when you need to make precise selections at specific measurements. You also find options for making your selections soft around the edges.

The only thing to remember is that you must select the options in the Tool Options, as shown in Figure 8-3, before you make your selection with the Marquee tools. Options can’t be applied after the selection has already been made. The exception is that you can feather a selection after the fact by choosing Select ⇒ Feather.

Here are the various Marquee options available to you:

• Feather: Feathering creates soft edges around your selection. The amount of softness depends on the value, from 0 to 250 pixels, that you enter by adjusting the slider. The higher the value, the softer the edges, as shown in Figure 8-4. Very small amounts of feathering can be used to create subtle transitions between selected elements in a collage or for blending an element into an existing background. Larger amounts are often used when you’re combining multiple layers so that one image gradually fades into another. If you want a selected element to have just a soft edge without the background, simply choose Select ⇒ Inverse and delete the background. See more on inversing selections in the “Modifying Your Selections” section, later in this chapter. For more on layers, see Chapter 9.

  Don’t forget that those soft edges represent partially selected pixels.

• Anti-aliasing: Anti-aliasing barely softens the edge of an elliptical or irregularly shaped selection so that the jagged edges aren’t quite so obvious. An anti-aliased edge is always only 1 pixel wide. We recommend leaving this option chosen for your selections. Doing so can help to create natural transitions between multiple selections when you’re creating collages.
• Aspect: The Aspect drop-down list contains three settings:
  • Normal: The default setting, which allows you to freely drag a selection of any size.
  • Fixed Ratio: Lets you specify a fixed ratio of width to height. For example, if you enter 3 for width and 1 for height, you get a selection that’s three times as wide as it is high, no matter what the size.
  • Fixed Size: Lets you specify desired values for the width and height. This setting can be useful when you need to make several selections that must be the same size.
• Width (W) and Height (H): When you choose Fixed Ratio or Fixed Size from the Aspect drop-down list, you must also enter your desired values in the Width and Height text boxes. To swap the Width and Height values, click the double-headed arrow button between the two measurements.

• Refine Edge: For details on this great option, see “Refining the edges of a selection,” later in this chapter.

  The default unit of measurement in the Width and Height text boxes is pixels (px), but that doesn’t mean that you’re stuck with it. You can enter any unit of measurement that Elements recognizes: pixels, inches (in), centimeters (cm), millimeters (mm), points (pt), picas (pica), or percentages (%). Type your value and then type the word or abbreviation of your unit of measurement.

Selecting with the Lasso tool

Using the Lasso tool is the digital version of tracing an outline around an object on a piece of paper. It’s that easy. And you have only three choices in the Tool Options — Feather, Anti-aliasing, and Refine Edge. To find out more about Feather and Anti-aliasing, see the section “Applying Marquee options,” earlier in this chapter. For the scoop on Refine Edge, see the section “Refining the edges of a selection,” later in this chapter.

Here’s how to make a selection with the Lasso tool:

1. Select the Lasso tool from the Tools panel.

   It’s the tool that looks like a rope. You can also just press the L key. If the Lasso tool isn’t visible, press L to cycle through the various Lasso flavors.

2. Position the cursor anywhere along the edge of the object you want to select.

   The leading point of the cursor is the protruding end of the rope, as shown in Figure 8-5. Don’t be afraid to zoom in to your object, using the Zoom tool — or, more conveniently, pressing Control++ (⌘  ++ on the Mac) — if you need to see the edge more distinctly. In this figure, we started at the top of the sunflower.

3. Hold down the mouse button and trace around your desired object.

   Try to include only what you want to select. While you trace around your object, an outline follows the mouse cursor.

   Try not to release the mouse button until you return to your starting point. When you release the mouse button, Elements assumes that you’re done and closes the selection from wherever you released the mouse button to your starting point; if you release the button too early, Elements creates a straight line across your image.

4. Continue tracing around the object and return to your starting point; release the mouse button to close the selection.

   You see a selection border that matches your lasso line. Look for a small circle that appears next to your lasso cursor when you return to your starting point. This icon indicates that you’re closing the selection at the proper spot.

Getting straight with the Polygonal Lasso tool

The Polygonal Lasso tool has a specific mission in life: to select any element whose sides are straight. Think pyramids, stairways, skyscrapers, barns — you get the idea. It also works a tad differently from the Lasso tool. You don’t drag around the element with the Polygonal Lasso. Instead, you click and release the mouse button at the corners of the element you’re selecting. The Polygonal Lasso tool acts like a stretchy rubber band.

Follow these steps to select with the Polygonal Lasso tool:

1. Select the Polygonal Lasso tool from the Tools panel.

   You can also press the L key to cycle through the various Lasso tools. The tool looks like a straight-sided lasso rope.

2. Click and release at any point to start the Polygonal Lasso selection line.

   We usually start at a corner.

3. Move (don’t drag) the mouse and click at the next corner of the object. Continue clicking and moving to each corner of your element.

   Notice how the line stretches out from each point you click.

4. Return to your starting point and click to close the selection.

   Be on the lookout for a small circle that appears next to your lasso cursor when you return to your starting point. This circle is an indication that you’re indeed closing the selection at the right spot.

   Note: You can also double-click at any point, and Elements closes the selection from that point to the starting point.

   After you close the polygonal lasso line, a selection border appears, as shown in Figure 8-6.

Snapping with the Magnetic Lasso tool

The third member of the Lasso team is the Magnetic Lasso. We aren’t huge fans of this Lasso tool, which can sometimes be hard to work with. However, we show you how it works so that you can decide whether to use it. The Magnetic Lasso tool works by defining the areas of the most contrast in an image and then snapping to the edge between those areas, as though the edge has a magnetic pull.

You have the most success using the Magnetic Lasso tool on an image that has a well-defined foreground object and high contrast between that element and the background — for example, a dark mountain range against a light sky.

The Magnetic Lasso tool also has some unique settings, which you can adjust in the Tool Options before you start selecting:

• Width: Determines how close to the edge (between 1 and 256 pixels) you have to move your mouse before the Magnetic Lasso tool snaps to that edge. Use a lower value if the edge has a lot of detail or if the contrast in the image is low. Use a higher value for high-contrast images or smoother edges.
• Contrast: Specifies the percentage of contrast (from 1 percent to 100 percent) that’s required before the Magnetic Lasso snaps to an edge. Use a higher percentage if your image has good contrast between your desired element and the background.
• Frequency: Specifies how many fastening points (from 1 to 100) to place on the selection line. The higher the value, the greater the number of points. As a general rule, if the element you want to select has a smooth edge, keep the value low. If the edge has a lot of detail, try a higher value.
• Tablet Pressure (pen icon): If you’re the proud owner of a pressure-sensitive drawing tablet, select this option to make an increase in stylus pressure cause the edge width to decrease.

Follow these steps to use the Magnetic Lasso tool:

1. Select the Magnetic Lasso tool from the Tools panel.

   You can also press the L key to cycle through the various Lasso tools. The Magnetic Lasso tool looks like a straight-sided lasso with a little magnet on it.

2. Click the edge of the object that you want to select to place the first fastening point.

   Fastening points anchor the selection line, as shown in Figure 8-7. You can start anywhere; just be sure to click the edge between the element you want and the background you don’t want.

3. Continue to move your cursor around the object without clicking.

   While the selection line gets pinned down with fastening points, only the newest portion of the selection line remains active.

   If the Magnetic Lasso tool starts veering off the desired edge of your object, back up your mouse and click to force down a fastening point. Conversely, if the Magnetic Lasso tool adds a fastening point where you don’t want one, press Backspace (Delete on the Mac) to delete it. Successive presses of the Backspace or Delete key continue to remove the fastening points.

   If the Magnetic Lasso isn’t cooperating, you can temporarily switch to the other Lasso tools. To select the Lasso tool, hold down Alt (Option on the Mac), click the mouse button, and drag. To select the Polygonal Lasso tool, hold down Alt (Option on the Mac) and click.

4. Return to your starting point and click the mouse button to close the selection.

   You see a small circle next to your cursor, indicating that you’re at the right spot to close the selection. You can also double-click, whereby Elements closes the selection from where you double-clicked to your starting point. The selection border appears when the selection is closed.

Talking about Tolerance

The Tolerance setting determines the range of color that the Magic Wand tool selects. The range of color is based on brightness levels, ranging from 0 to 255:

• Setting the Tolerance to 0 selects one color only.
• Setting the Tolerance to 255 selects all colors, or the whole image.

The default setting is 32, so whenever you click a pixel, Elements analyzes the value of that base color and then selects all pixels whose brightness levels are between 16 levels lighter and 16 levels darker.

What if an image contains a few shades of the same color? It’s not a huge problem. You can make multiple clicks of the Magic Wand to pick up additional pixels that you want to include in the selection. You can find out how in the section “Modifying Your Selections,” later in this chapter. Or you can try a higher Tolerance setting. Conversely, if your wand selects too much, you can lower your Tolerance setting.

So you can see by our talk on tolerance that the Magic Wand tool works best when you have high-contrast images or images with a limited number of colors. For example, the optimum image for the Wand would be a solid black object on a white background. Skip the wand if the image has a ton of colors and no real definitive contrast between your desired element and the background.

Wielding the Wand to select

To use the Magic Wand tool and adjust its Tolerance settings, follow these steps:

1. Select the Magic Wand tool from the Tools panel.

   It looks like a wand with a starburst on the end. You can also just press A to cycle through the Magic Wand, Quick Selection, and Selection Brush tools. Or you can choose any of the tools and then select your desired tool in the Tool Options.

2. Click anywhere on your desired element, using the default Tolerance setting of 32.

   The pixel you click determines the base color.

   If the Pixel Gods are with you and you selected everything you want on the first click, you’re done. If your selection needs further tweaking, like the top image shown in Figure 8-8, continue to Step 3.

3. Specify a new Tolerance setting in the Tool Options.

   If the Magic Wand selects more than you want, lower the Tolerance setting. If the wand didn’t select enough, increase the value. While you’re poking around in the Tool Options, here are a couple more options to get familiar with:

   • Sample All Layers: If you have multiple layers and enable this option, the Magic Wand selects pixels from all visible layers. Without this option, the tool selects pixels from the active layer only. For more on layers, see Chapter 9.
   • Contiguous: Forces the Magic Wand to select only pixels that are adjacent to each other. Without this option, the tool selects all pixels within the range of tolerance, whether or not they’re adjacent to each other.
   • Anti-aliasing: Softens the edge of the selection by one row of pixels. See the section “Applying Marquee options,” earlier in this chapter, for details.
   • Refine Edge: Click the Refine Edge button. In the Refine Edge dialog box, clean up your selection by moving the Smooth slider to reduce the amount of jagginess in your edges. Feather works like the Feather option discussed in the “Applying Marquee options” section, earlier in the chapter. Move the Shift Edge slider to the left or right to decrease or increase the selected area, respectively. For even more details, see the section “Refining the edges of a selection,” later in this chapter. We explain yet another way to refine edges (which you don’t find in the Tool Options) in “Applying the Grow and Similar commands,” also later in this chapter.

4. Click your desired element again.

   Unfortunately, the Magic Wand tool isn’t magical enough to modify your first selection automatically. Instead, it deselects the current selection and makes a new selection based on your new Tolerance setting. If it still isn’t right, you can adjust the Tolerance setting again. Try, try again.

Adding to, subtracting from, and intersecting a selection

Although the Marquee, Lasso, and Magic Wand tools do an okay job of capturing the bulk of your selection, if you take the time to add or subtract a bit from your selection border, you can ensure that you get only what you really want:

• Add: If your selection doesn’t quite contain all the elements you want to capture, you need to add those portions to your current selection border. To add to a current Marquee selection, simply press the Shift key and drag around the area you want to include. If you’re using the Polygonal Lasso, click around the area. And if you’re wielding the Magic Wand, just press the Shift key and click the area you want.

  You don’t have to use the same tool to add to your selection that you used to create the original selection. Feel free to use whatever selection tool you think can get the job done. For example, it’s very common to start off with the Magic Wand and fine-tune with the Lasso tool.

• Subtract: Got too much? To subtract from a current selection, press the Alt (Option on the Mac) key and drag the marquee around the pixels you want to subtract. With the Alt (Option on the Mac) key, use the same method for the Magic Wand and Polygonal Lasso as you do for adding to a selection.
• Intersect two selections: Get your fingers in shape. To intersect your existing selection with a second selection, press Shift+Alt (Shift+Option on the Mac) and drag with the Lasso or Marquee tools. Or, if you’re using the Magic Wand or Polygonal Lasso, press those keys and click rather than drag. Your selection now includes only the area common to both selections.

Avoiding key collisions

If you read the beginning of this chapter, you found out that by pressing the Shift key, you get a perfectly square or circular selection. We tell you in the section “Adding to, subtracting from, and intersecting a selection,” earlier in this chapter, that if you want to add to a selection, you press the Shift key. What if you want to create a perfect square while adding to the selection? Or what if you want to delete part of a selection while also drawing from the center outward? Both require the use of the Alt (Option on the Mac) key. How in the heck does Elements know what you want? Here are two tips to avoid keyboard collisions — grab your desired Marquee tool:

• To add a square or circular selection, press Shift and drag. While you drag, keep the mouse button pressed, release the Shift key for just a second, and then press it again. Your added selection area suddenly snaps into a square or circle. You must then release the mouse button and then release the Shift key.
• To delete from an existing selection while drawing from the center outward, press Alt (Option on the Mac) and drag. While you drag, keep the mouse button pressed, release the Alt (Option on the Mac) key for just a second, and then press it down again. You’re now drawing from the center outward. Again, release the mouse button first and then release the Alt (Option on the Mac) key.

You can also use the selection option buttons in the Tool Options.

The Eraser tool

The Eraser tool enables you to erase areas on your image to either your background color or, if you’re working on a layer, a transparent background, as shown in Figure 8-14. For more on layers, check out Chapter 9.

To use this tool, simply select it and drag through the desired area on your image, and you’re done. Because it isn’t the most accurate tool on the planet, remember to zoom way in and use smaller brush tips to do some accurate erasing.

You have several Eraser options to specify in the Tool Options:

• Brush Presets Picker: Click the drop-down list to access the Brush presets. Choose a brush. Again, additional brush libraries are available on the Brush list. (Click the down-pointing arrow in the top-right corner.)
• Size: Slide the Size slider and choose a brush size between 1 and 2,500 pixels.
• Opacity: Specify a percentage of transparency for your erased areas. The lower the Opacity setting, the less it erases. Opacity isn’t available in Block mode.
• Type: Select Brush, Pencil, or Block. When you select Block, you’re stuck with one size (a 16-x-16-pixel tip) and can’t select other preset brushes.

The Background Eraser tool

The Background Eraser tool, which is savvier than the Eraser tool, erases the background from an image while being mindful of leaving the foreground untouched. The Background Eraser tool erases to transparency on a layer. If you use this tool on an image with only a background, Elements converts the background into a layer.

The key to using the Background Eraser is to carefully keep the hot spot, the crosshair at the center of the brush, on the background pixels while you drag. The hot spot samples the color of the pixels and deletes that color whenever it falls inside the brush circumference. But if you accidentally touch a foreground pixel with the hot spot, it’s erased as well. And the tool isn’t even sorry about it! This tool works better with images that have good contrast in color between the background and foreground objects, as shown in Figure 8-15. If your image has very detailed or wispy edges (such as hair or fur), and you’re up for a challenge, layer masking can also provide good results. We describe layer masks in Chapter 9.

Here’s the rundown on the Background Eraser options:

• Brush Settings: Click the Brush Settings button to bring up the settings to customize the Size, Hardness, Spacing, Roundness, and Angle of your brush tip. The Size and Tolerance settings at the bottom are for pressure-sensitive drawing tablets.
• Limits: Discontiguous erases all similarly colored pixels wherever they appear in the image. Contiguous erases all similarly colored pixels that are adjacent to those under the hot spot.
• Tolerance: The percentage determines how similar the colors have to be to the color under the hot spot before Elements erases them. A higher value picks up more colors, whereas a lower value picks up fewer colors. See the section “Talking about Tolerance,” earlier in this chapter, for more details.

The Magic Eraser tool

You can think of the Magic Eraser tool as a combination Eraser and Magic Wand tool. It selects and erases similarly colored pixels simultaneously. Unless you’re working on a layer with the transparency locked (see Chapter 9 for more on locking layers), the pixels are erased to transparency. If you’re working on an image with just a background, Elements converts the background into a layer.

Although the Magic Eraser shares most of the same options with the other erasers, it also offers unique options:

• Sample All Layers: Samples colors using data from all visible layers but erases pixels on the active layer only.
• Contiguous: Selects and erases all similarly colored pixels that are adjacent to those under the hot spot.
• Anti-aliasing: Creates a slightly soft edge around the transparent area.

Selecting all or nothing

The Select All and Deselect commands are no-brainers. To select everything in your image, choose Select ⇒ All or press Ctrl+A (⌘  +A on the Mac). To deselect everything, choose Select ⇒ Deselect or press Ctrl+D (⌘  +D on the Mac). Remember that you usually don’t have to Select All. If you don’t have a selection border in your image, Elements assumes that the whole image is fair game for any manipulation.

Reselecting a selection

If you sacrifice that second cup of coffee to steady your hand and take the time to carefully lasso around your desired object, you don’t want to lose your selection before you have a chance to perform your next move. But all it takes is an inadvertent click of your mouse while you have an active selection border to obliterate your selection. Fortunately, Elements anticipated such a circumstance and offers a solution: If you choose Select ⇒ Reselect, Elements retrieves your last selection.

One caveat: The Reselect command works for only the last selection you made, so don’t plan to reselect a selection you made last Tuesday or even just five minutes ago, if you selected something else after that selection. If you want to reuse a selection for the long term, save it as we explain in the section “Saving and loading selections,” later in this chapter.

Inversing a selection

You know the old song lyric: “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.” Well, making selections in Elements is kind of like that. Sometimes it’s just easier to select what you don’t want rather than what you do want. For example, if you’re trying to select your beloved in his senior photo, it’s probably easier to just click the studio backdrop with the Magic Wand and then inverse the selection by choosing Select ⇒ Inverse.

Feathering a selection

In the “Applying Marquee options” section earlier in this chapter, we describe how to feather a selection when using the Lasso and Marquee tools by entering a value in the Feather box in the Tool Options. Remember that this method of feathering requires that you set the Feather value before you create your selection. What we didn’t tell you is that there’s a way to apply a feather after you make a selection.

Choose Select ⇒ Feather and enter your desired amount from 0.2 to 250 pixels. Your selection is subsequently softened around the edges.

This method is actually a better way to go. Make your selection and fine-tune it by using the methods we describe earlier in this chapter. Then apply your feather. The problem with applying the feather before you make a selection happens when you want to modify your initial selection. When you make a selection with a feather, the marquee outline of the selection adjusts to take into account the amount of the feathering. So the resulting marquee outline doesn’t resemble your precise mouse movement, making it harder to modify that selection.

Refining the edges of a selection

The Refine Edge option enables you to fine-tune the edges of your selection. It doesn’t matter how you got the selection, just that you have one. You can find the command in the Tool Options of the Magic Wand, Lasso, and Quick Selection tools. And, of course, you can find it on the Select menu. Here’s the scoop on each setting for this option, as shown in Figure 8-16:

• View Mode: Choose a mode from the pop-up menu to preview your selection. Hover your cursor over each mode to get a tooltip. For example, Marching Ants shows the selection border. Overlay lets you preview your selection with the edges hidden and a semi-opaque layer of color in your unselected area. On Black and On White show the selection against a black or white background. Show Original shows the image without a selection preview. Show Radius displays the size of the area in which the edge refinement is happening.
• Smart Radius: Select this option to have Elements automatically adjust the radius for hard and soft edges near your selection border. If your border is uniformly hard or soft, you may not want to select this option. This enables you to have more control over the radius setting.
• Radius: Specifies the size of the selection border you will refine. Increase the radius to improve the edge of areas with soft transitions or a lot of detail. Move the slider while looking at your selection to find a good setting.
• Smooth: Reduces jaggedness along your selection edges.
• Feather: Move the slider to the right to create an increasingly softer, more blurred edge.
• Contrast: Removes artifacts while tightening soft edges by increasing the contrast. Try using the Smart Radius option before playing with Contrast.
• Shift Edge: Decreases or increases your selected area. Slightly decreasing your selection border can help to defringe (eliminate undesirable background pixels) your selection edges.
• Decontaminate Colors: Replaces background fringe with the colors of your selected element. Because decontamination changes the colors of some of the pixels, you will have to output to, or create, another layer or document to preserve your current layer. To see the decontamination in action, choose Reveal Layer for your View mode. Chapter 9 explains how to work with layers.
• Amount: Changes the level of decontamination.
• Output To: Choose whether you want to output your refined, decontaminated selection to a selection on your current layer, layer mask, layer, layer with layer mask, new document, or new document with layer mask.
• Refine Radius tool: Select the Paintbrush tool on the left and brush around your border to adjust the area you’re refining. To understand exactly what area is being included or excluded, change your View mode to Marching Ants. Use the right and left brackets to decrease and increase the brush size.
• Erase Refinements tool: Use this tool (which looks like an Eraser), also located on the left, to clean up any unwanted refinements made with the Refine Radius tool.
• Zoom tool: Allows you to zoom in to your image to see the effects of your settings.
• Hand tool: Enables you to pan around your image window to see the effects of your settings.

Using the Modify commands

Although the commands on the Modify submenu definitely won’t win any popularity contests, they may occasionally come in handy. Here’s the scoop on each command:

• Border: Selects the area, from 1 to 200 pixels, around the edge of the selection border. By choosing Edit ⇒ Fill Selection, you can fill the border with color.
• Smooth: Rounds off any jagged, raggedy edges. Enter a value from 1 to 100 pixels, and Elements looks at each selected pixel and then includes or deselects the pixels in your selection based on your chosen value. Start with a low number, like 1, 2, or 3 pixels. Otherwise, your selection may be less accurate.
• Expand: Enables you to increase the size of your selection by a given number of pixels, from 1 to 100. This command is especially useful if you just barely missed getting the edge of an elliptical selection and need it to be a little larger.
• Contract: Decreases your selection border by 1 to 100 pixels. When you’re compositing multiple images, you often benefit by slightly contracting your selection if you plan to apply a feather. That way, you avoid picking up a fringe of background pixels around your selection.

Applying the Grow and Similar commands

The Grow and Similar commands are often used in tandem with the Magic Wand tool. If you made an initial selection with the Magic Wand but didn’t quite get everything you want, try choosing Select ⇒ Grow. The Grow command increases the size of the selection by including adjacent pixels that fall within the range of tolerance. The Similar command is like Grow except that the pixels don’t have to be adjacent to be selected. The command searches throughout the image and picks up pixels within the Tolerance range.

These commands don’t have their own Tolerance options. They use whatever Tolerance value is displayed on the Tool Options when the Magic Wand tool is selected. You can adjust that Tolerance setting to include more or fewer colors.

Saving and loading selections

At times, you toil so long over a complex selection that you really want to save it for future use. Saving it is not only possible but highly recommended. It’s also a piece of cake. Here’s how:

1. After you perfect your selection, choose Select ⇒ Save Selection.

2. In the Save Selection dialog box that appears, leave the Selection option set to New Selection and enter a name for your selection, as shown in Figure 8-17.

   The operation is automatically set to New Selection.

3. Click OK.
4. When you want to access the selection again, choose Select ⇒ Load Selection and choose a selection from the Selection drop-down list.