Photoshop has many tools available for making selections. I, personally, do not use all of them. I find that most selections I need can be made by using the Magic Wand Tool, the Magnetic Lasso, and the Quick Mask Mode. So, as I do not have much experience using the other tools such as the other lasso tools, I am going to describe only the tools listed above. However, as I stated earlier, I have never had to use the others.

The tool I use most often is the Magic Wand Tool. This tool lets you select an area of one color. I use this tool a lot to select the background of a picture. I can than invert that selection so that I am left with everything but the background. I also use this tool to select different sections that are clearly defined by color. It is not a good idea to use this tool to make selections where there is shading, as it won't pick up the whole area because the shade of color is different.

When items are clearly defined and set apart from the rest of the picture, you may want to use the Magnetic Lasso. I really don’t use this tool that much either, because I prefer to use the Magic Wand if the colors are that defined. However, this is another way to select clearly defined areas. Unlike the Magic Wand Tool I usually use to isolate the background, using the Magnetic Lasso will allow you to select the area you want without having to select the background and invert the selection.

Now, both of the tools mentioned earlier are great for selecting areas that are clearly defined. However, many pictures and illustrations have areas that blend together. Shading is an important part of art, but makes it a little more difficult to select specific areas. In these cases, you need to modify your approach. In fact, it now becomes a two step process.

First you want to use either the magnetic lasso, or magic wand to select your item. This may also select items that you don’t want or it may not select your entire item, but we will fix that in our next step. This first is just providing us with the rough shape of your item and can also be done using the Shapes Tool to select the general shape of your item.

Once you have your general selection it is now time to click on the Quick Mask toggle button. This will shade everything that is not selected a light pink. Your selection will retain its true color. Now, you can clearly see which parts you have selected and which parts are not. We can also add and subtract from our selection without affecting our picture in anyway.

In Quick Mask Mode you can use the Paintbrush Tool to add or subtract from your selection. To do this you must use the white or black colors. White will add to your selection while black will take from your selection. Using the Paintbrush Tool is exactly the same as using it outside of Quick Mask Mode except that it doesn’t paint on the actual picture. It will show up by either shading the area pink if you have the black color selected, or undoing the pink shading if it is set to the color white.

Now, that I have explained three of the selection methods, let me off a couple of tips about selections. When you want to select more than one area of a picture with the Magic Wand Tool, you can do so by pressing the Shift Key when making multiple selections. You can also make multiple selections with the Quick Mask Mode by simply using the Paintbrush Tool and the color white.

When it is easier to select the background than the picture that you want, you can invert your selection. This will unselect the area you have selected, and select the area that is not selected. Also, if you find are trying to select an area and you get a message that says that there are not pixels to select; you may need to deselect another area that you didn’t know was still selected. This is done by going to the Select section and choosing Deselect.