Lesson D: Object Selection

We used a number of tools in the opening project to select the osprey that we moved to the photo of the Italian town. You may wish to review that exercise. Let’s take a look at how those tools work here. This time, we’ll end with the Quick Selection tool. The first two methods (Select Subject and the Object Selection tool) are under very active development at Adobe, so we’re all looking forward to how they grow into their potential.

• Open the document “D E Object Selection.psd.” Our objective will be to mask the image so that only Peachy the Peach is visible, with neither the black velvet background nor the juggling balls.

Select Subject

When certain selection tools are active, a button labeled Select Subject will be available in the Options Bar. The function, however, is available anytime from the Select menu.

• Choose Select > Subject.

As of this writing, and for this particular image, the result isn’t quite what we hoped. Impressively, the juggling balls are ignored as we wanted, but sadly so were Peachy’s feet and one of her hands.

• Deselect with Select > Deselect or ⌘-D/Ctrl-D so we can try another method.

Object Selection Tool

• In the Tools panel, choose the Object Selection tool.
• Use it just like you would the Rectangular Marquee tool by drawing a box around Peachy.

If you surrounded all of her, the result is impressive. If you missed anything (like parts of her leaves), hold down shift and draw a second box that surrounds the neglected area. Then, you should be impressed. The slightly blurry juggling balls are ignored and Peachy is well selected. But let’s see what other tools may have been helpful had this one failed us.

• Deselect and return to the Tools panel.

Magic Wand Tool

• Right-click on the Object Selection tool to access and activate the Magic Wand tool.
• Test its function by clicking with it in the middle of one of Peachy’s eyes.

You’ll see that it selects the black of the eye, but the selection edge stops at the white area surrounding it. That’s because this tool reads the color you click on and then grows a selection from that point outward until it reaches something different enough. That “different enough” value is set in the Options Bar with a control called Tolerance. Most often, the Tolerance value is a range of levels or tones on each color channel above and below that of the pixel you click on. But it can be different than that if the pixel you click on is very light or dark. So just know that high values will select larger areas than low values, and you should usually change Tolerance a little at a time.

• Set the Tolerance to its default of 32. Click on one of Peachy’s hands and note how well or poorly it was selected. Deselect.
• Set Tolerance to about 100 and try again. It’s quite different. Then click on the surrounding black velvet. At such a high setting, the selection extends well into Peachy and much else.
• Deselect, set the Tolerance to 40 or 50, then click on the black velvet again. Now you’ve got a pretty nice selection of everything except Peachy and the juggling balls.
• Choose Select > Inverse to select Peachy and the balls.
• Switch to the Lasso tool. Hold down the option/Alt key so you can remove each juggling ball from the active selection by drawing a loop around it.

But what would we have done if there hadn’t been this convenient black backdrop? Glad you asked!

Quick Selection Tool

• Deselect if you haven’t yet.
• Right-click on the Magic Wand tool to access and activate the Quick Selection tool.

Like the Magic Wand tool, this tool reads what you click on (or drag over). It uses a circular, brushlike cursor to approximate the wand’s Tolerance and Sampling Size: the larger this tool’s brush, the more aggressive it becomes. The amount you sample in one go also affects how aggressively this tool selects. So I advise using smallish brushes and numerous strokes rather than one or a few strokes with a large brush size. For this image, that would mean a brush about 100 pixels across.

• Use the square bracket keys ([ or ]) to adjust the Quick Selection tool’s brush size (look in the Options Bar to monitor its size numerically). A width of 100 pixels should be good, as that’s a little narrower than Peachy’s stem.

Warning: As you “paint” your selection with this tool, keep the cursor’s edge within Peachy’s perimeter. Each brush stroke tells Photoshop what textures and colors you want selected. Going over the lines confuses that. If you do so, undo (⌘-Z/Ctrl-Z) and try again more carefully.

• Drag across Peachy’s forehead (as it were). The resulting marquee will extend to Peachy’s edges without your having to get too close.
• With separate strokes, drag across her eyes, on each hand, on each foot, and between the feet. You may need to get close to the edges so be careful! Finally, include her leaves too.

You may notice that you didn’t have to cover everything. It’s likely Photoshop selected one of her hands for you. In other images, Photoshop’s guesses could be wrong. When that’s the case, hold down option/Alt and paint over the areas that shouldn’t be selected. This helps the program know what you want and what you don’t.

So the rule is: when you make a mistake, undo. When Photoshop makes a mistake, gently correct it by option/Alt-painting with this tool.

Quick Mask Mode

Did you miss anything? Are you sure? Quick Mask is a cool and fast way to show you which areas are and aren’t selected.

• Tap the Q key to toggle into and out of Quick Mask mode. While in it, a red translucent overlay covers what isn’t selected. If you missed anything that should be selected, make a mental note of it. Then leave Quick Mask mode and add those areas.

Warning: For now, don’t do any selection-making while in Quick Mask mode. Be sure you’ve toggled back to regular mode first. How do you know for sure which mode you’re in? Look at the tab with the name of the file. If it says “Quick Mask” in it, tap Q to get out.

Select and Mask Workspace

• Do not deselect! We’re going places with that selection. If you’re in Quick Mask mode, exit it by tapping the Q key.

To perfect a selection, Photoshop offers an environment formerly called “Refine Edge” (still a great description) but now called Select and Mask. Note its button in the Options Bar. Although we can make selections as well as refine them there, I most often prefer to do only refinement.

• With your Peachy selection intact, click the Select and Mask button or choose Select > Select and Mask. You’re now in an entirely new workspace with its own tools and panels.

Before proceeding, you have a reading assignment. You’ll recognize our protagonist, so it will be very relevant to this exercise.

• Read the section “Select and Mask: Make or Refine Selections” (page 274). You’ll want to play along with this image as you do. When finished, remain in (or return to) Select and Mask and continue below.

Just Peachy

Now that you know the options available in Select and Mask, let’s apply a few.

• Set the View to On White.
• In the Edge Detection section, try a Radius of about 8 pixels with Smart Radius enabled.
• Because Peachy was surrounded by black pixels, some gray is contaminating her edge fuzz. So, in the Output Settings section, enable Decontaminate Colors at the full Amount.

The edges should look far better now!

• To be sure, enable High Quality Preview at the top of the workspace.
• When you click OK, you’ll have a new Peachy layer that is masked to those perfectly fuzzy edges.
• Save this file. You’ll need it in the next lesson, but you deserve a break!