Photoshop® CS5 Bible

Chapter 9. Creating Selections

IN THIS CHAPTER

• The secrets of the Select menu

• How to use the selection tools

• Making your selection perfect

Eventually, you'll want to make changes to just a part of your photo. Whitening teeth, swapping backgrounds, or targeting areas of a photo to leave in color even as you turn the rest to black and white are just a few examples of things you can do by selecting a portion of your photo. Knowing the different selection tools that are available to you in Photoshop and how and when to use each is integral to making these types of changes effectively.

When you create a selection in a photo, it allows you to change the area inside the selection without affecting any other part of the photo. You'll sometimes hear selections called selection masks, because they effectively mask the unselected portions of a photo from the changes being made. You also can use selections to create masks and paths, enhancing your selective creativity even more.

Before I show you how each selection tool works, I cover the basics, including the Select menu and the options available. After I show you the ins and outs of all the selection tools, I show you how to put the finishing touches on your selection and finally how to output your selections as masks.

The Select Menu

The Select menu, as shown in Figure 9.1, has several options that help you create and use a selection. Some of these options are holdovers from before the powerful selection tools like the Quick Selection tool and Refine ...