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Selection is key to most coloring, highlighting, and shading techniques; but can seem complicated at first. There are several methods for selection, and only you will know which one is best suited to you and your artistic needs. This tutorial covers the basics of the most versatile methods, and includes a few tricks to make them easier. I’m using Photoshop 5.5.

Magic Wand Tool

Call me crazy, but my favorite method is the Magic Wand tool. You simply click inside of an area that you want selected, and boom, there it is. Some people don’t like the magic wand because it can be a bit inaccurate and tempermental depending on what you're trying to select. But, you can remedy this inaccuracy by setting the Tolerance.

The tolerance level determines just how sensitive a certain tool will be. For example, setting the tolerance to "100" or more on the paint bucket tool will ensure that your color spreads out all the way to the black contour line of an area (and sometimes beyond). The same holds true for the magic wand. Set to a tolerance of "10", the magic wand will only select a small area of color.

Conversely, setting it to "100" will select a larger area. The tolerance is set by simply changing the number on the options palette. The options palette can be accessed by either double clicking on a tool icon or by selecting "show options" under the "window" menu. Window>>Show Options.

This can be particularly helpful if you want to select an area that has graded color (an area with a tonal range from light to dark, like something that you may have already shaded with the airbrush or paintbrush). Set the tolerance to a high number (in the neighborhood of "50" to "100") and use the magic wand to click on a mid-range color within the area you’re trying to select. You might have to try a good couple of times, resetting the tolerance number and clicking on different spots, but eventually you’ll get it just the way you want it.

You can also "add to" and "subtract from" your selection when using the magic wand tool. Left click to select an area, and then right click on a different area that you'd like to include in that selection. Choose "add to selection" and there you have it; both areas are selected. After a few areas have been selected, you might change your mind and want to deselect one or two parts. For this you simply right click on the area you want deselected and choose "subtract from selection".

Lasso Tool

Another method for selection is the Lasso Tool. There are 3 types of lasso tools: normal, polygonal, and magnetic.

Hold down the left mouse button over the lasso tool to see the icon for each one.

The normal lasso lets you draw a selection path around an area by holding down the left mouse button and going at it freehand. Doing it this way takes a steady hand and more patience than most people have.

The magnetic lasso will automatically follow a black line. Click on a starting point and drag the mouse around the area you’d like to select. The magnetic lasso will cling (more or less) to the contour line.

The polygonal lasso (my personal choice) will allow much more control. First, choose a starting point and then click it. Move along the outside edge of the area you’re trying to select, clicking at each point where you want the selection path to bend. (Be careful when clicking though, because double clicking will automatically enclose the selection, which can be extremely frustrating if you’ve just spent 10 minutes trying to follow the contour line of a complicated shape.) When you've followed the contour line all the way around the area you're trying to select and arrive back at your starting point, a little circle will appear above the polygonal lasso tool. Click one last time to enclose your selection when you see the little circle icon.

Save Selection

Now that you’ve selected your complex shape, you want to be able to select it again if you need to, right? In these cases you can save your selection. Open up the Select menu and choose "save selection".

A dialog box will open that allows you to name your selection and save it for when you need it. When it's time to use that particular selection, go back to the Select menu and choose "load selection". From here you'll be able to choose from a list of your saved selections.

(Do yourself a favor and play around with the Select menu. You can modify your selections by either expanding or contracting them by a certain number of pixels, or free transform them to fit your specifications. You have lots of options.)

Select Color Range

Color range will select everything in an image that matches your foreground color, and comes in handy for a variety of effects. The select color range option is found in the Select menu: Select>>Color Range.

Adjusting the "fuzziness" determines just how much of a particular color will be selected.

Choosing a Selection Color

Let's imagine that you want to use a gradient to color a stone wall, and then shade it with the airbrush.

Selecting, gradating, then shading each individual stone could possibly drive one insane. So color range selection is what you might want to use to preserve your mental faculties. Fill in each stone (or brick or whatever you're trying to select) with a wild color that doesn't appear anywhere else in your drawing, then Select>>Color Range. After the selection is made, you can save it (or not) and then change the color of the stones (or not) by using the Edit>>Fill option. You could also color only the outlines of your selection by using Edit>>Stroke.

I usually use a bright yellow, orange or blue for color selection. Think ahead. Figure out which areas you'll want to select via color range selection before you start coloring. Once selected, you could use a gradient, pencil, paintbrush, airbrush, etc. You could even press the delete button to erase inside the selection and show the layer underneath.

These are just a few of the selection options you have with Photoshop, but I feel that they are the most useful. Used in conjunction with the layers feature, I’m sure that you will find them quite useful as well. ^_^

Artwork and tutorial © Melody T. Herbert.