Photoshop Selections: Tips, Tricks, and Techniques

Course details

Take charge of Photoshop and make better, more targeted image adjustments with selections—including hard-to-select objects like hair, fuzzy edges, and color ranges. In this course, Rich Harrington reveals the importance of precise selections, whether you're masking, changing color and tone, or even storing transparency, and shows you how to make them with the tools in Adobe Photoshop CC. Dive into the Select menu commands and the Marquee, Lasso, and Magic Wand tools, and then learn how to refine your selections with Expand and Contract, Smooth and Feather, Quick Mask, and other controls. Photoshop power users will also enjoy advanced techniques involving the Color Range command and alpha channel selections.

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - The tips, tricks, and techniques for selecting areas of an image in Photoshop
02 - Using the exercise files
03 - A selection makes everything better

1. What Are Selections

04 - Using selections for color and tone adjustments
05 - Using selections to create masks
06 - The Select and Mask workspace

2. Getting Started with Photoshop Selection Tools

07 - Select all, deselect, and reselect
08 - Tips, tricks, and techniques for selecting areas of an image in Photoshop
09 - The Photoshop Marquee tools
10 - The Photoshop Selection Lassos
11 - Moving a Photoshop selection and Sky Replacement
12 - Using the options bar for advanced selection control in Photoshop

3. The Wand Tools

13 - The Photoshop Magic Wand tool
14 - The Photoshop Quick Selection tool
15 - Using the options bar for advanced wand control in Photoshop
16 - Saving tool presets

4. Refining a Selection

17 - Using Expand and Contract in Photoshop
18 - Grow, smooth, and feather a selection in Photoshop
19 - Transforming a selection in Photoshop
20 - The Inverse command in Photoshop
21 - Adding and subtracting from a selection
22 - Refining a selection with the Quick Mask command in Photoshop
23 - Improving selections with the Select and Mask command
24 - Advanced control with the Select and Mask command

5. Power User Techniques

25 - Using the Color Range command to select a color
26 - Using the Color Range command to select a tonal range
27 - Using the Color Range command to select skin tones
28 - Creating a selection based on focus area
29 - Selecting a sky in Photoshop
30 - Using the Select Subject command
31 - Making a selection with the Pen tool

6. Creating Selections with Channels

32 - What are channels
33 - Creating a selection from a single channel
34 - Saving a selection as an alpha channel
35 - Refining channels with the Save Selection command
36 - Creating a selection from two channels with the Calculations command

7. Creating Selections in Raw Files

37 - Setting the Mask view in Adobe Camera Raw
38 - Selecting a subject in Adobe Camera Raw
39 - Selecting a sky in Adobe Camera Raw
40 - Selecting a background in Adobe Camera Raw
41 - Selecting an object in Adobe Camera Raw
42 - Selecting a range in Adobe Camera Raw
43 - Combining and subtracting a selection in Adobe Camera Raw

8. Content-Aware Fill

44 - Making an initial selection for Content-Aware Fill
45 - Refining the sample area for Content-Aware Fill
46 - Controlling Content-Aware Fill output
47 - Using selections and Content-Aware Patch
48 - Using selections and Content-Aware Move

9. Face-Aware Liquify

49 - Adjusting the selection points for Face-Aware Liquify
50 - Refining an image with Face-Aware Liquify

Conclusion

51 - Next steps