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
Transform Selection
Some people just don't feel like coordinated when holding down both the mouse and the keyboard, and it seems like he end up letting go the mouse before you're supposed to that kind of thing. If you're one of those folks here's an alternative method, make a selection larger than what you need. Just click and drag get a big selection. Once you're done, go to the select menu and you're going to find in there a choice called transformed selection and that's going to allow you to scale in, rotate a selection, so if I choose transform selection now, I can just grab the left handle and pull it over until it touches the left edge of this object. I could grab the top handle and pull it down until it touches the top and just continue doing that until I get all four sides matching the object, and when I'm done, I press returner, enter or there's a check box at the top of my screen in the options bar that spans the top up here. Uh, that would do the same thing and that's the alternative if you hat...
e holding down keyboards and using your mouth at the same time now, just so you know, when you're in there and you're using that transformation, there's some other things you can do, so let's go back to the normal marquis tools, we're not making a oval, I'll make a selection, and then I'll go to the select menu, and I'll choose transform selection. Now looks a ziff all you can really do is scale this image, and if you happen to move your mouse away from it, you're masa icon will change so that it looks like a little curve and your cursor, that means you could rotate, but you can actually do a lot more if you want to be able to doom, or what you want to do is press the right mouse button after you already in this mode, where you transform the selection, and if you press the right ma spot, and it will give you a whole list of other things you could do. So, for instance, if I were to choose that choice, called distort that's, going to allow me to grab four corners of this independently and move them around. So if I had a picture of, I don't know, an image wrapped on canvas, like hanging on a wall that I shot at an unusual angle, where I'm not lined up perfectly straight on with it. I could use this where it's called, distort, and just move these four corners until they lined up with the four corners of a picture that's been printed on campaigns, and you have a picture of it shot and not angle and get its lineup when I'm done again I press returner enter to finalize it and again the way I got to the first one to the select menu and I chose transform selection and know that that's completely different than the other transform that's found under the edit menu that would transform your picture so the picture itself would scale in rotate where is the one found under the select menu right there means on ly those little marching ants that we that's the name we use for the the edge of the selection on lee that changes the picture doesn't and so after you choose transform selection, press the right mouse button and you can get the menu of other choices, which I think could be kind of nice all right then when we're looking at these things there's all sorts of tools we're going to need to use, but I find it's most effective to usually combined together multiple tools and so let's take a brief look at that let's say wanted to select this particular object well, I could use the trick we just talked about where I go to the elliptical marquis tool I first start with a selection larger than what we need and the reason we start larger than what we need is have you ever seen with transforming pictures? If you ever scale an image down you're fine, but any time you scale an image up, it becomes softer, doesn't it just doesn't have much details that had before, and the same is true of a selection. If you ever scale a selection up, the edge of it become softer in less kind of precise, you could say, where is it you say, oh it down, it doesn't harm it, it stays crisp or has the same edge quality it had previously so that's why we usually start larger over here, transforms selection and then bring this in and tell we get it matching sometimes with oval selections where it's not perfectly round also have to go just outside the edge and rotated a little bit to get it to line up press returner enter, same done, and now I can use any other selection till I'd like to get the handle of the coffee mug and I just want to briefly cover what keyboard shortcuts are needed these right now we're any use with some very basic tools, but later on they're going to become overly useful when we get into more complex tools, but the keyboard targets will be identical, so just gotta learn them on something basic, so now I can go to any other selection toe a let's I go to my lasso tool and I want to use that to select the handle well usually if you just click and start dragging you'll end up replacing the selection you already had with this new one so she's undo and if I want to instead add to my selection I need to hold down the shift key as long as I have shift held down before I click the mouse then I can come in here and use my lasso tool attempt to select this now no, I am using the track pad on my laptop you know I think you run your finger across so I'm not going to be that accurate usually be using the graphics tablet like a walk on tablet you could drive but when I'm teaching I like me and sloppy that we have an excuse but we'll do that um so I can add to that so that means I can grab things like the magic wand tool if you're not used to using the magic wand tool it's usually hidden underneath the tool called quick select but I could hold down, shift with it and see if I can just click on this handle and add a little bit to my selection if I get too much like out here in the background to take away hold on the option key ultima windows and you can take away the and it's just a matter of figuring out what tool he's going to work best for that but for now we'll call that good enough
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.