Robin, depending on what you need to select, you may find the Magnetic Lasso easier to use. In the toolbox, it is grouped with the regular Lasso tool.

Click at a starting point and guide the tool around the area you want to select. If it goes astray, tap Backspace as needed to delete errant anchor points. Then click to force anchors where you want them.

Your first effort is not likely to be perfect, so be prepared to practice for a while. You may find it helpful to zoom in (Ctrl-+) so you can better see the details as you work.

EDIT: When you complete the trip around the area you are selecting, look for a very tiny circle just below and to the right of the tool. When that appears, click to close the loop and finish the selection.

After you get the selection done, press Ctrl-J to put it on its own layer with a transparent background. In the Layers palette (F7 toggles it), click the "eye" to the left of the background layer in order to hide it and see only your selection.

What you do next depends on what you want to do with the selection. For example, if you want to make a collage, create a new image (Ctrl-N) with a plain white background and drag the selection over to that image. Open other images, select what you want, and drag those selections over to the destination image. Each will go onto its own layer and you can move them around independently.

Before using the Magnetic Lasso, check out the Options bar above the work area. You may want to feather the selection by a few pixels in order to soften the edges. Or maybe not. And you may want to tinker with the Width and Edge Contrast settings to optimize the tool for your image. The Frequency setting relates to how often it sets down an anchor point; you probably will not need to change that.

If you get hung up, post your image at www.pixentral.com and include its link in your next post here.

Robin_Wyatt

Replied in the following topics

How do I remove part of a pic?