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Make selections in your composites

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Make precise selections in Photoshop with selection tools, like Object Selection, Select Subject, Quick Selection, or Magic Wand.

Try out the latest features and enhancements.

With any of these selection tools in Photoshop, you can define an area and edit it further to enhance your image or composite.

Object Selection tool

Use the Object Selection tool ( ) to select an object or region in your image

Simply draw a rectangle or lasso around the selection or let the tool automatically detect and select an object or region within the image. 

You can access the Object Selection tool from the Tools panel and the Select And Mask workspace.

Select people is now available in Object Selection tool

  1. Select the Object Selection tool.

  2. Hover over the image to automatically select the desired object or region. The Object Finder is enabled by default and ensures you see a spinning refresh icon. 

    Uncheck this option if you'd prefer to use the Rectangle or Lasso selection mode and drag to make your selection.

    • Rectangle: Drag the pointer to define a rectangular region around the object or region.
    • Lasso: Draw a rough lasso outside the object's boundary or region.
  3. Select from these options:

    • New selection: This is the default option if nothing is selected. After making the initial selection, the option changes automatically to Add to selection.
    • Add to selection: Select this option from the options bar, then hover over or draw a new rectangle or a lasso around the missing region. Repeat this process for all the missing regions you want to add to the selection.
    • Subtract from selection: Select this option from the options bar, then hover over or draw a rectangle or lasso around the boundary of the region you want to subtract from the selection. It's particularly useful when removing the background regions inside the current object selection.  
    • Intersect with selection: Select this option if you want to keep only the areas where two or more selections overlap. 
  4. Use these options to let Photoshop analyze all visible layers and help make clean selections. 

    • Sample All Layers: Creates a selection based on all layers instead of just the currently selected layer.
    • Hard Edge: Enables hard edges on the selection boundary.
  5. Select Select And Mask from the options bar to further adjust the selection boundary or view the selection as a mask.

Select people and details

With the Select people ( ) functionality, you can make quick and precise selections of people and their details, like hair, clothes, and accessories.

Use the Object Selection tool and hover over a person on canvas to detect and display their details. Or use Select people in the options bar and the detected person's thumbnail, then choose from a dropdown list of automatically identified details to preview and apply them.

Follow the steps given to select details with the Object Selection tool.

Update graphics driver on Windows

If you encounter crashes or other instability when using the Object Selection tool on Windows and you have an NVIDIA graphics card, you may need to update your NVidia Windows Display drivers. Windows update won't always give you the latest drivers. You must go directly to your card manufacturer’s website to check for driver updates:

Be aware that notebook drivers sometimes have a different name than similar desktop drivers. Some video adapter manufacturers have other software that requires updating in addition to the video driver. Read the update instructions carefully, and contact the video adapter manufacturer directly if you don't understand the instructions.

To learn how to manually update or reinstall your graphics driver for Windows 10, see Update drivers in Windows 10.

Delete and Fill Selection

Easily remove unwanted objects or retouch an image with a complex background using Delete and Fill Selection.

Use the Object Selection tool and then this keyboard shortcut to remove it:

  • macOS: Shift + Delete
  • Windows: Shift + Backspace
Note:

While using the Lasso Tool, right-click to access the contextual menu and select Delete and Fill Selection to delete unwanted objects. 

Make improved hair selections

Get improved hair selections in human portraits with the Object Selection tool, simply by selecting the tool, making your selection around the person, and obtaining the mask. 

Go to Select And Mask > Refine Hair to improve the mask results, especially for animals and fur.

Mask all objects in a layer

Right-click a layer and select Mask All Objects to instantly get masked layers for all objects detected.

Improve your selection with Object Selection tool - Creative exercise

Use Object Selection tool to select the sky and then Select and Mask to refine your selection. 

  1. Select the Object Selection tool.

  2. Check Object Finder and change the overlay color from Overlay Options

  3. Hover over the sky in your image to see the overlay. This is possible when the Object Selection tool and Object Finder are enabled. You can now make additional refinements to your sky selection.  

  4. Create Color Fill adjustment layers using the Object Selection Tool sky selection.

Select Subject

Use Select Subject ( ) to select the most prominent subject in an image. 

  1. Select Select Subject from the options bar. 

  2. Select Add to selection and Subtract from selection to refine the initial selection.

  3. Use the tools in Select and Mask to further refine your selection. 

How do you decide when to use the Object Selection tool versus Select Subject?

Use Object Selection tool to select an object or part of an object in an image that contains multiple objects.

Use Select Subject to select all the main subjects in your image.

Quick Selection tool

Use the Quick Selection tool ( ) to paint a selection with an adjustable round brush tip. As you draw, the selection expands outward and automatically finds and follows defined edges in the image.

  1. Select the Quick Selection tool

  2. To refine your selection, select New selection, Add to selection, or Subtract from selection from the options bar.

  3. Select the brush pop-up menu in the options bar if you wish to change the brush tip size and enter the pixel size or drag the slider.

    Select the Size drop-down menu to turn off brush tip sensitivity or make it sensitive to pen pressure or stylus wheel.

  4. Check these options:

    • Sample All Layers: Creates a selection based on all layers instead of just the currently selected layer.
    • Enhance Edge: Automatically improves the edges by making them smoother and more refined.
  5. Paint over the area you want to select and the tool expands the selection as you go, automatically following the edges of shapes in the image for a more precise selection.

    Note:

    If you stop dragging and then select or drag in a nearby area, the selection will grow to include the new area.

  6. Select Select and Mask to adjust the selection boundary further. 

Magic Wand tool

Use the Magic Wand tool ( ) to select a consistently colored area without tracing its outline. Specify the selected color range, or tolerance, relative to the original color selected.

Note:

You cannot use the Magic Wand tool on an image in Bitmap mode or on 32‑bits-per-channel images.

  1. Select the Magic Wand tool.

  2. Select from Add to selection, Subtract from selection, or Intersect with selection from the options bar. The tool's pointer changes depending on the option selected.

  3. Make selections for:

    • Sample size: Controls how much the image is sampled and affects the sensitivity of the tool when selecting pixels of similar color.
    • Tolerance: Determines the color range of selected pixels. Enter a value in pixels, ranging from 0 to 255. A low value selects fewer colors and a higher value selects a broader range of colors.
    • Anti-alias: Creates a smoother-edged selection.
    • Contiguous: Selects only adjacent areas using the same colors. Otherwise, all pixels in the entire image using the same colors are selected.
    • Sample All Layers: Selects colors using data from all the visible layers. Otherwise, only colors from the active layer are selected.
  4. Select the color in your image. If you select Contiguous, all adjacent pixels within the tolerance range are selected. Otherwise, all pixels in the tolerance range are selected.

  5. Select Select and Mask to further adjust the selection boundary or view the selection as a mask. 


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