Selections

lasso tool. quick mask. paths. extract. are just some of the methods.

I mean the buttons I need, like ctrl+… i don’t know what, so that only the form I made will be selcted for instance and not the whole thing.

Julian,

You only use keyboard keys to Add to an existing selection area (SHIFT) or Subtract from an existing selection area (ALT)

Erm… "l" gets you to the lasso tool, but I don’t think that I see the point of your question…

Will you "make" the form on its own layer? then CTRL+click the thumbnail in the layer palette selects the non-transparent areas of that layer…
All this is clearly explained in the user guide…

Are you looking to select the luminance of the image? If so you can do that by using Alt+Shift+Control+~

Not sure if that is what you are looking for.

sweet-p

wrote in message

When I have a picture (lets say a head) with black background, how do I

select the outlines of the head only? I forgot which buttons to use and I couldn’t find out!

When I select with the rectangular or elliptical marquee tool and try to crop it, it won’t crop the exact selection; instead it has a margin around it! How come? Not like when I copy the same selection. No matter how much I’ve tried it, it won’t do it! I have other – simpler – photo editing programs that can do it. Another thing; when I select the "Single Row/Column Marquee Tool" the warning sign tells me that "No pixels are more than 50% selected. The selection edges will not be visible" How does one overcome this? How does this selection work and what is it good for anyway? Since I am a beginner I played around with it many times, but I don’t see any logic in the result? I have 2 good books on the subject, plus the help files, but none of them give detailed explanations on this and many other aspect of Photoshop. Anyone could help pls. before I go mad, or give up!?

"lance" wrote in message

When I select with the rectangular or elliptical marquee tool and try to crop it, it won’t crop the exact selection; instead it has a margin around it! How come? Not like when I copy the same selection. No matter how

much

I’ve tried it, it won’t do it! I have other – simpler – photo editing programs that can do it. Another thing; when I select the "Single Row/Column Marquee Tool" the warning sign tells me that "No pixels are

more

than 50% selected. The selection edges will not be visible" How does one overcome this? How does this selection work and what is it good for

anyway?

Since I am a beginner I played around with it many times, but I don’t see any logic in the result? I have 2 good books on the subject, plus the

help

files, but none of them give detailed explanations on this and many other aspect of Photoshop. Anyone could help pls. before I go mad, or give up!?

I forgot to mention that I am running Photoshop 7. Thanks.

lance wrote:

When I select with the rectangular or elliptical marquee tool and try to crop it, it won’t crop the exact selection; instead it has a margin around it! How come? Not like when I copy the same selection. No matter how much I’ve tried it, it won’t do it!

Perhaps your selection has a feather that is more than zero? If so, the feathering also takes place outside the selection and that’s why the crop is also outside the selection line that you see.

Another thing; when I select the "Single Row/Column Marquee Tool" the warning sign tells me that "No pixels are more than 50% selected. The selection edges will not be visible" How does one overcome this?

Same story. If you try to feather a single line selection more than one pixel, you will not get any pixel that is selected more than 50%.

—
Johan W. Elzenga johan<<at>>johanfoto.nl Editor / Photographer http://www.johanfoto.nl/

In article <3fb37950$0$13680$>,
"lance" wrote:

When I select with the rectangular or elliptical marquee tool and try to crop it, it won’t crop the exact selection; instead it has a margin around it! How come? Not like when I copy the same selection. No matter how much I’ve tried it, it won’t do it! I have other – simpler – photo editing programs that can do it. Another thing; when I select the "Single

Bitmap images are rectangular, so your much simpler programs do leave some kind of space (some color or transparent) around the ellipses too. But if there are "margins" around the ones you cropped with the rectangular marquee as well, you should turn off feathering for that tool first. BTW, there is a separate tool just for cropping, namely the Crop Tool, which you can switch to by pressing C.

Row/Column Marquee Tool" the warning sign tells me that "No pixels are more than 50% selected. The selection edges will not be visible" How does one

Turn off feathering.

..lauri

When I select with the rectangular or elliptical marquee tool and try to crop it, it won’t crop the exact selection; instead it has a margin around it! How come?

Because you have a Feather assigned to the marquee. Set the Feather to 0 in the Marquee options.

Another thing; when I select the "Single
Row/Column Marquee Tool" the warning sign tells me that "No pixels are more than 50% selected. The selection edges will not be visible" How does one overcome this?

It is telling you this because you have a Feather assigned to the marquee. Set the Feather to 0 in the Marquee options.

—
Rude T-shirts for a rude age: http://www.villaintees.com Art, literature, shareware, polyamory, kink, and more:
http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html

Hi,

now i know there are a few different ways in order to make intermediate to complex selections (eg, hair). i most often use the mask mode where i paint and then transfer back to normal and then i get my selection.

Is this is best method. otherwise what way will be better?

– thanks.

now i know there are a few different ways in order to make intermediate to complex selections (eg, hair). i most often use the mask mode where i

paint

and then transfer back to normal and then i get my selection.
Is this is best method. otherwise what way will be better?

I hate to walk down this road but… "The Best Way" is the one, perhaps two, that works best for you.

Making selections of complex items in an efficient manner generally calls several tools. Knowing which ones to use and where is a function of doing a lot of selections. Factors that help you make the decision can include many things. Some considerations are

1. What is the contrast between the item and its background
2. Is the item monochromatic or nearly so
3. Are you using a mouse or a tablet
4. Do you have greater skill with one of the selection tools

At first It will take a long time to do a real good selection but with practice that time will come down.

Charles
Torrance, California
http://www.tcpslashipdomains.com

Nick wrote:

Hi,

now i know there are a few different ways in order to make intermediate to complex selections (eg, hair). i most often use the mask mode where i paint and then transfer back to normal and then i get my selection.

Is this is best method. otherwise what way will be better?
– thanks.

There is no Best Way, but quickmasking hair is probably not the easiest. Try Google with "tutorial hair masking photoshop" and you’ll be wiser! Pjotr

When using PE2 I frequently use the magnetic lasso tool for selecting an object, I can fine tune it using the selection brush tool to add to or remove from the selection. How do I do this in CS ?
Jim

You use the magnetic lasso tool, and the big brother of the selection brush: QuickMask.

I am operating a Dell Windows system, 2 gig’s of ram and using Photoshop CS3. While using the erasure tool to convert background to checkerboard transparency so that image can be selected for transfer to another background, after saving and reopening, the background lost the checkerboard and became totally white. In this state, the image cannot be transfered. Any suggestion on how I can convert the background back to the checkerboard status to allow transfer of just the image?

Screen name,

Rontuck

You got me there. Images do not need transparency to be transferred to other images. And I would not use the Eraser to make a background transparent.

What exactly are you trying to do? What are you Saving As?

If you save as a PSD you will not lose the transparency.

And if you Save as jpeg (my suspicion) transparency goes bye-bye.

I am guessing this is an extracting an image question.

Click the white background with the magic eraser tool?