It's ironic that one of the most common editing tasks faced by digital photographers is also the trickiest. I am referring, of course, to making selections. Whenever you want to isolate one part of a photo from another in order to selectively add sharpness, blur, color adjustments, or other special effects, you inevitably need to use a selection tool to pick a part of the photo.
Last week I gave an overview of the most common selection tools in popular photo editing programs. This week, let's continue the discussion of selection tools by learning how you can control selections more accurately.
The Mode Is Your Friend
Just because you start using one selection tool to do a particular job, that doesn't mean you need to stick with it through the entire selection process.
Suppose there's a grassy field you want to select, and so you choose to employ the Magic Wand. But as you work, you realize there's a brown patch among the green that won't easily succumb to your wand, no matter how high you set the Tolerance control. In a situation like this, perhaps you should change to the Freehand selection tool and grab the last bit of the region by outlining it.
But you might be wondering how to do that. After all, if you switch tools, you'll lose all the work you've already done with the Magic Wand. Nope--this is a job for the Mode control. You can find the Mode menu in the Tool Options palette. (If you don't see the Tool Options palette at the top of the screen after selecting a tool, you can toggle it on by choosing View, Palettes, Tool Options.)
By default, selection tools are set to the Replace mode, which means that every time you click somewhere in the image, the selection you are making replaces whatever selection you had before. So try setting the Mode menu to Add. Each time you click, the new selection is added to whatever selection was there before. (You can also just hold down the Shift key when you click rather than changing the Mode menu.)
Here's a great example of how this can save you a lot of work. Just try selecting the leaf in this photo using the Magic Wand. With the Magic Wand's Tolerance set to about 20, you can capture a lot of the leaf--but not all of it.
You could try increasing the Tolerance, but that is a time-consuming exercise in trial and error. Instead, switch the tool to Freehand Selection and choose Freehand. Set the mode to Add, and then use the mouse to "circle" all the little areas that aren't selected. If you want to, you can switch back to the Magic Wand and make one or two more clicks to finish selecting all the green bits of leaf.
Also, don't forget that there's a Remove mode as well. Just like the name suggests, setting your selection tool to Remove lets you selectively erase parts of your selection. Imagine trying to select a donut, for instance. You can select the entire shape, them use Remove to deselect the hole in the middle.
Feather for Realism
The hard edges generated by selection tools often look artificial. Real life is defined by smooth edges, not sharp contrasts. If you feather your selections, you create a smoother transition from your selected object to the rest of the photo, and that can make everything look a little better.
There are two ways to feather your selections: You could set the feathering before you make your selection, or make the selection and then feather the edges.
To add the feathering right at the beginning, set the Feather value (measured in pixels) in the Tools Options palette before you start making your selection. Remember that because feathering is measured in pixels, the effect is relative to the overall size of the picture. If your photo is 1 megapixel in size, 3 pixels might be fine. But on a 10-megapixel photo, you'll have to feather by 12 pixels to get the same sort of blending effect.
If you'd rather make your selection and then feather at the end, make your selection first. When you're done, choose Selections, Modify, Feather from the menu and set the value.
Hot Pic of the Week
Get published, get famous! Each week, we select our favorite reader-submitted photo based on creativity, originality, and technique. Every month, the best of the weekly winners gets a prize valued at between $15 and $50.
Here's how to enter: Send us your photograph in JPEG format, at a resolution no higher than 640 by 480 pixels. Entries at higher resolutions will be immediately disqualified. If necessary, use an image editing program to reduce the file size of your image before e-mailing it to us. Include the title of your photo along with a short description and how you photographed it. Don't forget to send your name, e-mail address, and postal address. Before entering, please read the full description of the contest rules and regulations.
This Week's Hot Pic: "Spider's Web," by Walt Durling, Strasburg, Pennsylvania
Walt writes: "I got up before sunrise and drove slowly along a back country road in Lancaster County, which is Amish farm country. It was a great morning to have a camera since the fog was thick. A few minutes after the sun rose, diffused by the fog, I noticed a spider's web strung from a wire fence in front of a farm. I hunkered down in front of it in the wet high grass, set my depth of field at max, and hoped for the best."
See all the Hot Pic of the Week photos online.
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