All three Lasso Tools require that you set a starting point to begin your selection, then return to that starting point to enclose a section of the canvas.

There are 3 types of lasso tools - regular Lasso, the Polygonal lasso and the Magnetic Lasso.

The Lasso Tool allows you to create sections that have irregular borders. Note that with all Photoshop tools it is better to brush in several short strokes rather than to paint the entire object in a single stroke in case you make a mistake along the way and need to go back in your history. You can quickly select a region that has strongly defined color contrast with the background despite any color variance in the object selected.Ĭhoose the Quick Selection Tool from the toolbar (it shares a toolbar button with the Magic Wand Tool), define your brush size so that it isn't so large that it will be selecting a significant area outside the boundaries of what you want to select, and paint the object you want to select with the brush. It looks at the colors in the are defined by the brush and creates a selection boundary where there is a significant color change. It allows you to select a brush size from the option bar, then click on any region in an image that you want to select. The Quick Selection Tool also offers a very simple way to create a selection. Note that the options bar for the Magic Wand tool allows a few options, such as setting the tolerance, which will allow it to select a wider or narrower range of colors. In order to switch your selection to the balloon, on the menu bar choose: Select > Inverse. Note that this tool has now selected everything except the balloon. Click on the Magic Wand Tool on the toolbar (or if the Quick Selection is currently selected, click and hold on the Quick Selection Tool until the drop-down gives you the option to select the Magic Wand Tool).

In this case, it will be easier for us to select the blue sky since it is all one color rather than selecting the balloon directly. This is very powerful if you want to select a region that has a narrow color range but has limited uses beyond that.įor instance, in the image of the balloon below the Magic Wand tool makes selection of the balloon very easy to do. The Magic Wand Tool is one of the easiest selection tools in that you only need to click one place on the canvas and it will select a a region that is within the same color range as the pixel clicked. SHIFT: Holding the shift key while using any selection tool will add to the existing selection (the cursor will show a small + sign).ĪLT: Holding the alt key while making a selection will remove from the existing selection (the cursor will show a small - sign). There are three essential keystrokes to remember when utilizing any of the selection tools.ĬTRL-D (Apple-D on Mac): Removes the selection. The selection boundary display is called a marquee. The selection tool in Photoshop will create an outline around the image that look like dashed blinking lines, to outline selections in an image you want to modify only the area with in those boundaries are affected.

You can use Photoshop selection tools to select areas of an image to change/transform color and shapes for you projects.

Select all one color photoshop