Hello and Welcome to complete beginners guide to Adobe Photoshop
In the previous eight article,
the variety of tools on offer
and how they can be used. To follow along with this video, you will need to open this document I have prepared especially for this tutorial. This document can be found in the Essential Practice folder in the Project folder. Now you can download this Project folder for free, the download link is in the description. So with the Project folder open, click Essential Practice, open the Making Selections folder, and open the Making Selections PSD. Then you should have somethin' that looks like this. Now, we are going to be covering a lot in this post and in quite some depth. If you wish to skip ahead to any point in the video, or back, you can do so quite simply. The topics covered in this video are listed in the description and the downloadable PDF along with their times. So be sure to check that out. So with the document open, let's get into it. So the first tool I want to introduce you to is the Marquee Tool. Now, this tool can be found just under the Move Tool over in the menu to the left. Now if we move into the menu and click and hold on the Marquee Tool icon, we can see that there are a range of Marquee Tools to choose from. So the first tool I'm going to choose is the Rectangular Marquee Tool. With this selected, you will now see in the canvas area the mouse cursor become a crosshair.
So when using this tool it's basically a case of clicking and dragging to make a particular selection. Now it does not matter at this stage what layer you have selected. You'll be able to create a selection. So first I will place the mouse cursor where I want to start. So I'll zoom in here and use this square shape as a reference. I'll click in the top left and drag out like so, keeping my finger held down on the mouse. Now as I drag out we will see what appears to be a dashed line. This is Photoshop communicating what selection area we are about to make Now because this is the Rectangular Marquee Tool we are going to make a selection in a box or rectangular shape like so. on this occasion I'll make a selection to the bottom edge of the square and release click.
Upon release, we will now see a dashed line. So this is our new selection here. Now with this selection we can do a number of things. With the Marquee Tools still active we can move the mouse into the selection area. We will notice the mouse cursor change to a white arrow. Well this is Photoshop telling us
that we can move this around if we wish. So if I click and drag in the selection I can move it around like so. Now you don't have to use the mouse to move the selection around. You can also use the arrow keys on the keyboard. By pressing up and down on the keyboard you can move the selection around in small increments. Now if you press and hold Shift and again press the arrow keys, you can move the selection around in larger increments. Now you must be careful when you have your selection. With the Selection Tool if you click outside the selection once you will lose your current selection. I'll just press undo to go back a step and get my selection back. Now what if I want to remove from my current selection? So if I press and hold Alt on the keyboard notice a little minus appear on the crosshair. With Alt held down if I click and make a selection in the current selection upon release this area will be taken away from the selection like so. If I want to add more to the current selection this time I will press Shift on the keyboard. Notice this time a plus symbol next to the crosshair mouse cursor. This is indicating that I can click and add to the selection. Now the selection does not have to be one area. You can hold Shift and make additional selection areas around the initial selection and select particular areas. Now a useful shortcut to know if ever have a selection in your canvas area by pressing Command + D this will deselect the selection area. 
So with this current selection I'll press Command + D to deselect. So I'm going to move over to the right here to the gray square. Now if you're following along I suggest you have a go at this. Now as mentioned earlier one of the things we can do with selection areas is fill them with color to make shapes and creative objects in the document.
So with the Rectangular Marquee Tool
I'm going to come to the top left of the gray square and click to drag down just like before. Now as I drag you can see I can make any shape I like. Now another useful tip if you press and hold Shift while you drag out you can create a selection in a perfect square like so. By holding Shift I'm going to drag out
until I make a selection similar to the gray square. Upon release I now have my dashed outline like so. So now I'm going to fill the selection with color, but first we need to pay close attention to the Layers panel. What I need to do here is create a new layer so I don't color on top of any current layers I have in my document. So I'll come to the bottom of the Layers panel and hit the New Layer icon. With the new layer selected in the Layers panel and the selection still active I'm going to press I on the keyboard to activate the Eyedropper Tool. With this tool I'm going to click into the orange square to select the color. Notice now the foreground color in the menu is set to orange. Then I'm going to come across in the menu
and select the Paint Bucket Tool. With the Paint Bucket Tool active I'm going to come into the square selection and click once. click we will fill this with orange in the current selection. Once the selection is filled with color the selection will still remain as a dashed line. If we no longer need a selection we can simply press Command + D to deselect. I'll just zoom out. So just like that we have created a new layer with a square shape with color inside.Now I'll come over into the Layers panel, click on the name, rename this to "Square fill". Easy. So next I'm going to come back to the Rectangle Marquee Tool and click and hold on the icon. This time I'm going to select the next Marquee Tool, Elliptical Marquee Tool. So this is the same as the previous tool, but instead of a square selection it will make a ellipse selection. So I'll click and try and make a selection over the circle here and now I have a circle selection with the dashed line around like so. So again I'm going to come over to the right. This time with the circle Marquee Tool I'm going to try and mimic the shape below. Remember if we press and hold Shift we can create a perfect circle shape. Upon release I'll create a new layer. This time I'll press Command + Shift + N to create a new layer. I'll call this layer "Circle fill" and click OK. I'll press I to activate the Eyedropper Tool. I'll select the green from the circle to the left. Then I could come over to the Paint Bucket Tool though this time I'll press G the shortcut for the Paint Bucket Tool. the Paint Bucket Tool active and the green set and the foreground color in the menu I'll click into the selection then I'll press Command + D to deselect the selection and zoom out. And just like that I have a new green circle on it's own layer. Nice. So there are the two main Marquee Tools to make basic selections in Photoshop, the Rectangular and the Elliptical Marquee Tools. So be sure to practice with these tools to get a good grip of them as you'll find yourself using these a lot in future. So the next tool I want to introduce you to is the Lasso Tool. Now this tool works similar to the previous tool in terms of allowing us to make selections. But this tool gives us much more flexibility to create a much more detailed selection. So you can find the Lasso Tool just under the Marquee Tools in the menu. Just like the Marquee Tools you can click and hold in the menu to reveal the tools on offer.
So here we have the Lasso Tool, the Polygonal Lasso Tool, and the Magnetic Lasso Tool. So I'll start by demonstrating the Lasso Tool. So I'll move my mouse over it and release. Now with the Lasso Tool active you will notice your mouse cursor appears as a lasso. With this tool you can click and drag like before and draw a selection area freely like so. Now just like with the Marquee Tool at this point it does not matter which layer you have selected. You will be able to make a selection freely. As you click and draw you will see a gray line appear and as you join the end and release this area you drew will become a selection. Again we can see the dashed outline like so. Now you may find yourself using this in a situation where you need to create a quick selection freely. Now the next Lasso Tool is the Polygonal Lasso Tool. This one is a really useful tool and I find myself using this one the most. So back up in the menu this time I'll click and hold to reveal the tools and select the Polygonal Lasso Tool. With this active again we will see the lasso icon next to the cursor, but with subtle points. This tool works like the previous, but instead of creating a free drawn line you can create a selection from point to point clicks. For example let's zoom into the triangle here. So with the Polygonal Lasso Tool I'll click to start. So with one click you will lay down a point. As I move my mouse cursor around notice a gray line attached to the first point. Photoshop is asking me where I would like to drop my next point. So I'll click on the bottom edge of the triangle here. Upon click I'll drop my next point and again I can move my mouse cursor around to place a new point. So this time I'll move my mouse up and over the first point I created. As I do so I will see a little circle appear on the mouse cursor. This is Photoshop asking if I would like to click to close the selection. Upon click I have now made a new selection around the triangle. Easy. So I'll press Command + D to deselect the selection and I'll move over to the right here. With the Polygonal Lasso Tool active this time I'm going to make a selection around this gray triangle. I'll first click once on the top point, move my mouse cursor down, and click a second time in the bottom right corner, again in the bottom left, then up, and click to join at the top. Upon click I have quickly made a selection close to the triangle below. With the selection active I'll press Command + Shift + N to create a new layer. I'll call this layer "Triangle fill" and click OK. I'll press I to activate the Eyedropper Tool. I'll select the pink from the triangle to the left. With the color loaded into my foreground color I'll press G to activate the Paint Bucket Tool and I'll click into the selection to fill it with color. Once happy I'll press Command+D to deselect the selection. And now I have a new layer with a triangle shape. Easy. So the Polygonal Lasso Tool is really useful for making selections without curves. So with the Polygonal Lasso Tool as an exercise let's try and trace the outline of the orange bird at the bottom of this document. Place my first point at the top and click my way around until I get to the end like so. Easy. So the last Lasso Tool is an interesting one.
This one is called the Magnetic Lasso Tool.
With this one selected and active this time we can see a magnetic symbol on the mouse cursor. With this tool I'm going to trace this circle here. So I'll click at the top once and move my mouse cursor around. As I move around Photoshop is makin' a selection across the outline of the circle. I can continue around and close the selection by clicking over the start point. The Magnetic Tool attempts to guess what you are tracing by sticking to a perceived outline. So depending on your creative circumstance you can use this one as a fast way to trace around clear and bold artwork. Now the last selection tool is the Magic Wand Tool. This tool can be very useful in particular situations. As you begin using the selection tools you will find that on occasion you will spend quite some time using them to create selections. On occasions you may find it hard to create selections manually using the Marquee Tools and the Lasso Tools. In some situations the Magic Wand Tool can speed things up. So you can find the magic wand tool up in the menu under the Lasso Tools. Now also you can activate the Magic Wand Tool at any time by pressing W on the keyboard. So if I press W I will activate the Magic Wand Tool and I can see the Magic Wand icon. Now unlike the previous two tools the Magic Wand Tool is going to interact with the particular layer you have selected. For example I want to make a quick selection of the inside of the circle here I created earlier. I can use the I'll place my mouse cursor over the circle and right click. I'll select the Circle Fill Layer and now I can see in the Layers panel I have this layer selected. So I'll press W to activate the Magic Wand Tool. Now if I move my mouse cursor over the circle and click, on click I will make a selection of the circle area like so. What the Magic Wand Tool does is select particular areas on a layer particularly areas of the same color. So I'll press Command + D to deselect. This time I'll click on the background layer. Now on this layer we can see we have this blue solid color with a red origami bird inside. So with this layer selected and the Magic Wand Tool active I'm going to click inside the blue area.
Now if we look carefully we can see that we have made a selection of the entire blue area. We can see the dashed outline around the outside of the blue area and around the red bird. So I'll press Command + D to deselect. Now this time I'm going to click inside the red bird like so. I click in the middle. Now see what has happened this time. Because the bird is made of a gradient the Magic Wand cannot pick all of the bird as it's made of various colors. So upon click the Magic Wand has made a selection of part of the bird. But what if I want all of the bird to be selected? Now with the current selection active and my Magic Wand still active now I'm carefully going to press and hold Shift on the keyboard. Now just like earlier by pressing and holding Shift this is going to add to the current selection. By pressing Shift now we can see a little plus on the mouse cursor. So I'll move my mouse cursor up into another part of the bird and click. Upon click we have selected more of the bird area, but not all of it. With Shift still held down I'll make additional clicks into the bird to select more of the area like so. After a few clicks we now have the whole bird selected. Nice. So the Magic Wand Tool can be used to select areas of single flat color. But by holding Shift you can select additional areas to add to the selection if you wish. So those are the three main selection tools in Photoshop, the Marquee Tools, the Lasso Tools, and the Magic Wand Tools. Be sure to practice with these tools as you will be using them a lot as you create in Photoshop. So before we move onto the next video I want to showcase some tips and tricks you should be aware of with regards to the selection tools. So a good tip is Select All. Sometimes you may be in a situation where you want to make a quick selection of the entire canvas area. To do this simply press Command + A. By pressing Command + A you will now notice the dashed selection line appear around the entire document. The next tip, make a quick selection of a layer object outline. So for this example I'm going to focus on the orange bird layer. Now if I press V to activate the Move tool I can see that this orange bird exists on it's own layer. There is nothing but the bird. Everything around the bird is transparent. Now if I want to make a quick selection of this bird area if I come into the Layers panel if I press and hold Command on the keyboard and click once on the layer thumbnail a selection will become active around the outside of the entire layer, the bird. So I'll press Command + D to deselect. Again I'll hold Command on the keyboard, but this time I will click on the Triangle Fill layer. To perform this task you do not need to have any particular layer selected. Upon click I will now have the triangle area selected. Now it's important to keep in mind here if you try this on a shape object set on a white background it will not work. This will only work if the layer has transparency around it.
So the last tip is saving selections.
Now if you make a selection in your canvas area perhaps it's a complex selection you have spent a long time building you can save them. So I'll make a quick selection of the red bird using the Polygonal Lasso Tool. Now with this selection activeI can come up to Select in the top main menu, scroll down, and click Save Selection. Upon click up will pop a menu. Here I can name the selection. I'll call this Big Bird and click OK. So back in the document I can carry on making other selections and moving on from the previous task. Now if I want to come back and make that selection again I can come up to Select, scroll down, and select Load Selection. From the menu I can click on Channel and select Big Bird, the selection I saved previous. I click OK and there is the selection active. Convenient. So that is how to use the Selection Tools in Adobe Photoshop. In the next article
we will be learning how to copy and paste. One of the most common tasks performed in Photoshop. You are follow this links https://softwarelearning007.blogspot.com/ and share with your Friends... See you Next article...👍👍👍 
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