Lessons
Elliptical Marquee: Corners
04:17 2Transform Selection
06:13 3Straight lines with Lasso Tool
02:13 4Quick Selection Tool
03:25 5Inverse Selection
01:13 6Lasso plus Magic Wand Selections
06:20 7Quick Mask Mode
06:10 8Precise Selection on Handwritten Text
14:20Lesson Info
Focus Masking
Now, let's, see if there's a way I could select this guy, and if you look at this image, what I notice about it as faras thinking about photoshopped technology and how much you can help me is I'm trying to think about what is the easiest way for me to separate the thing I want from its surroundings. What quality is different of the thing I'm trying to keep from its surroundings if its brightness? I think blending sliders if it's color you'll see later on, I would use something called color range in this case what I notice as far as the difference between the two is the thing I want to keep some focus, the stuff I don't want to keep is not in focus. He noticed that. So if that's ever the case where that's what's easy to define as far as the difference between subject in background that I mean he's, a feature that's only found in the newest versions of photo shops. If you don't have photo shops sisi, you won't have this feature. I'll go the select menu there's a choice now called focus a...
rea, and if I choose focus area, they'll see this little wereley thing happening in the lower left that means it's thinking and it was trying to figure this out for me it's going to try to automatically isolate what's in focus from what's not and once it's done that at the top, there is a choice for a preview and if you click on this little thumbnail that's up there, you can change our preview you could see it as marching ants like you normally think of selections. You can see it as something that looks similar to quick mask mode where the areas that are not are the areas that are not selected would be covered in red. You could say on black ron white in case you were going to delete it and put it on black or white, black and white means show meet as a mask we haven't talked about masks yet we'll talk about later mass in a different session if I have another layer underneath this like a new background I wanted to put in there then I could choose on layers and it would reveal the layer that's underneath it in this case since I don't have a layer underneath, it will just show us our checkerboard. Anyway, we have all sorts of these preview options there is up to you which when you find to be most helpful oftentimes the red over lace nice because you can simply still see what was there so I can see is there anything being covered with red that shouldn't so if there was let's, say a an infant hanging onto his back you know, in the in this view the infant just wouldn't show up it is doing something wrong but with the red overlay I could tell that oh there was something attached to him that I shouldn't have so it's up to you what you'd like here I'll do on layers because I think most people are usedto thinking that way then we have two tools here you see these tools let's see what they do I'm going to go to where the tail should be but isn't showing up and he's going click there and drag like this and look up you see how brought some of the tailback so that's the tool it's got a little plus sign on it and that's where if it ever delete stuff that it shouldn't we could come in here and just paint over part of it and then farther chappelle's hey you probably wanted that thing you painted over and if too much comes back we have the tool of the minus sign on it and I could say not this stuff and I don't have to perfectly painted over those things I just need to give it a general idea I think there's still some stuck to the tail here so go a little close to the tail there and it'll re calculate each time to try to clean it up and so that's also where I could try to come up here there's a little opening between the the the arm and stuff and I could use the minus sign to say and you try to poke a hole there too and now there are other choices in here you can tell what kind of thing you want to end up with the selection a layer ask or a new document even but if you just want to selection you could choose that um anyway it's just kind of nice focus area but the thing about it is the background needs to be blurry not partially in focus because if it's partially in focus it's going to start probably picking up some of that detail and your subject needs to be sharp I mean it's it's a good good for demo you could say, but in the real world use of it you'll find those a lot of images that have the background being just a little bit too sharp or the edge of the subject is starting to go soft and it's suddenly wants to ignore the edge of the object and stuff so you do need to paint a bit with the little plus in the minus that's here uh to refine it on a lot of the images we have a question by chance that that I saw someone with one no well, you sort of addressed it a little bit I was just going to ask about enforce its best for we're here with things that are blurry because clouds and fireworks seventeen c to be blurry, but um I was thinking maybe more long lines of glitter or texture, but then this had texture and so then you mentioned color, so yeah, well, it's, the main thing is this is trying to look at what soft versus what is detailed and so any time you say that the thing you want to keep is overly detailed in the thing you want to get rid of has no detail, then I would think about coming to this, but you really need to have it where the entirety of the object you want to keep has details and the entirety of the background is soft and so it has somewhat of a limited use but it's nice that it's here it's only a newer versions of butter shop in other shops sisi that you'll find it now there is a choice at the bottom left called refine edge and know that if you have anything that is furry, fuzzy harry or has an overly complex edge, you'll most likely need to go there to refine it uh, not something we're going to cover here though that's something we can cover in the next class that I teach, which is the one on complex elections, but let me just show you a hint of that I'm going to tell it to show this on white and let's. Zoom up on it to see how good the edge is. You know, if I zoom up on it, does it look like the hair that's here? Like somebody cut it out with a pair of scissors? Let's say it was printed in a magazine and somebody just went snipped around it with paris scissors. It doesn't. To me look photo realistic on the edges. If h little hair is going to have the most precise thing if I were to click the refine edge button, then in the next session that I teach, you will learn how to do things like this. Which, when I let go with my mouse, you will find that that hair looks more natural, that, uh oh, and so I know that this is a good start, but there are other features. And since this is free, fuzzier harry, we have a session on doing furry fuzzy, and harry and I can come in here in refine this using those features and get the edge to look much better. Eso if it is something you need to use with those kinds of selections, consider looking at that other class.
Class Materials
bonus material with purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Steve61861
I love learning from Ben Willmore! He has such a friendly, casual style I just love watching him in action. But he never wastes my time, he attacks his topic forcefully, stays focused on his teaching, and I have learned so much watching his videos. Ben is terrific and I strongly recommend this and his other courses on CreativeLive.
Julie Coder
Excellent class! Ben has a very clear presentation style so it's easy to follow along. I appreciate seeing the diverse approaches to selections, and some creative uses as well. Thanks so much!
dinotaco
I am a beginner in PS. I had been struggling with it for about 6 months until I took Ben Willmore's Photoshop 101. I have had many "aha" moments, but still learning. I decided to get "Quick Selections" because I was looking for shortcuts and quicker ways to process my photography. I am only half way through the course and it has already paid for itself in time that it will save me. It has also opened my eyes to greater possibilities in editing. Ben Willmore is an excellent instructor. His style is laid back, but thorough.
Student Work
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