Using Selection Tools

A. Marquee Tools

 Rectangular Marquee Tool:

o Select the tool from the toolbar or press M.
o Click and drag to create a rectangular selection.
 Elliptical Marquee Tool:
o Right-click the Marquee Tool icon and select the Elliptical Marquee Tool.
o Hold Shift to create a perfect circle while dragging.
 Single Row/Column Marquee:
o These tools create a selection of a single pixel in height or width.

B. Lasso Tools

 Lasso Tool:
1. Select the Tool: Press L.
2. Create Freehand Selection: Click and drag to draw around the area you want
to select.
 Polygonal Lasso Tool:
1. Select the Tool: Click and hold the Lasso Tool icon to select the polygonal
option.
2. Create Selection: Click to create points, forming straight lines between them.
 Magnetic Lasso Tool:
1. Select the Tool: Same selection process as above.
2. Create Selection: Click along the edge of the object you want to select; the
tool snaps to edges.

C. Magic Wand Tool

 Press W to select the Magic Wand Tool.

 Click on a color in your image to select areas of similar color.
 Adjust the tolerance in the options bar to increase or decrease the range of colors
selected.

2. Making Color Range Selections

 Go to Select > Color Range.

 Use the Eyedropper tool to click on a color in your image.
 Adjust the Fuzziness slider to control the range of similar colors selected.
 Click OK to create the selection.

3. Modifying a Selection

A. Adding and Subtracting from a Selection

 Hold Shift to add to a selection.

 Hold Alt (or Option on Mac) to subtract from a selection.
B. Expand and Contract Commands

 Go to Select > Modify > Expand or Contract.

 Enter a value in pixels to expand or contract your selection accordingly.

C. Grow and Similar Commands

 Use Select > Similar to select similar colors based on the current selection.
 Use Select > Grow to expand the selection to adjacent pixels of similar color.

4. Refining Edges

 With a selection active, go to Select > Modify > Refine Edge.

 Use sliders to adjust the smoothness, feathering, contrast, and shift edge.
 Preview changes in real-time, then click OK.

5. Inverse Selection

 To select everything except your current selection, go to Select > Inverse or use
the shortcut Shift + Ctrl + I (Windows) or Shift + Command + I (Mac).

6. Transforming a Selection

A. Transforming Techniques

 With a selection active, go to Edit > Free Transform (or press Ctrl + T /
Command + T).
 Scale: Drag the corner handles.
 Rotate: Move your cursor outside the corners to rotate.
 Distort: Hold Ctrl (or Command) while dragging a corner handle.
 Skew: Hold Ctrl (or Command) and drag a middle handle on the side.
 Perspective: Hold Ctrl + Alt (or Command + Option) while dragging a corner
handle.
 Warp: Click on the "Warp" option in the top bar, then drag to adjust the shape.

7. Saving and Loading Selections

 To save a selection, go to Select > Save Selection.

 Name your selection and click OK. It will be stored in the Channels panel.
 To load a saved selection, go to Select > Load Selection and choose your saved
selection from the drop-down menu.

Save Selection:

1. Go to Select > Save Selection.

2. Name your selection and click OK.

Load Selection:
 1. Go to Select > Load Selection.
2. Choose your saved selection from the drop-down menu.

How to Crop an Image in Photoshop

Cropping an image is an essential task used repeatedly in daily tasks. We may need to
crop a photo for resizing an image or remove an unwanted part of the image. Another
reason for cropping an image is getting closer to the main subject of the image.

Before understanding how to crop an image in Photoshop, let's discuss the following
consideration points:

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o Never crop an image too much because it may comprise the image quality due to
loss of resolution. In general, always crop an image less than 50%.
o Before cropping, it is good to check the alignment of the subject. The straightening
angle should be between 5 to 10 degrees; as the angle will increase image will lose
its pixels. Also, there may be a chance to lose some of the essential elements of the
image.
o We should always shoot the image from a bit wider angle so that we can make
potential changes in the alignment of the image.

Crop a Photo
The crop tool is used to crop an image. Follow the below steps to crop an image:

Step1: Open the image

To crop an image, open it with Photoshop or drag it in Photoshop. We can also open an
image by navigating to the File-> Open menu or hit the Ctrl+O key combination.

It will open the file explorer, select the file from it and click Open to open it in Photoshop.
Step2: Activate the crop tool

Now, select the crop tool to crop an image. We can activate the crop tool in the following
ways:

o By selecting it from the toolbox

o By hitting the C key
We can activate the crop tool by clicking on the below icon in the toolbox:

Also, we can hit the C key to activate it.

Step3: Drag the area

Now, drag the area to be cropped. We must select the area by considering the image
orientation and layout. Also, we should check whether any essential elements are in the
crop radius or not.
Step4: Crop Image

We can move the crop window after finalizing the selection. So, once we are done with
the selection process, hit the Enter key to crop the selection. Other parts of the image
except the selected one will be removed from the image.

After cropping an image, we can see that the image size is reduced, and an unwanted
image is removed from our image.
Crop Options:

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When we activate the crop tool, the crop options can be found in the top menu bar:

There are different crop options available in the above toolbox. We can also find the
common crop option by right-clicking on the crop box. There are following crop options
are available:

1. Aspect Ratio menu

2. Swap Width and Height values
3. Overlay Options

Size and proportions

We can select the size or ratio to be cropped. We can cause a preset value or define a
value for later use.

Overlay Options

The overlay options allow us to choose a view to display the overlay guides while
cropping. The guides include grid, golden ratio, rule of thirds, etc. We can press the O
key to cycle through all the options.

Crop Options

We can click on the setting icon given at the top bar for additional crop options.

Use Classic mode

The classic mode allows us to use the crop tool from a previous version (CS5 or earlier).

Auto Center Preview

The auto center preview option allows us to place the preview of the crop box in the
center. It will automatically place the crop box in the center of the image canvas.

Show Cropped Area

This option allows us to display the area to be cropped. If we do not select this option, it
will display only the final area.

Enable Crop Shield

The crop shield allows us to overlay the cropped areas with a tint. We can specify the
opacity & color. We can also select the auto-adjust option, which will automatically be
reduced when selecting the crop boundaries.

Delete cropped pixels

It is an essential crop option for non-destructive crops and retains the outside pixel of the
crop box. The advantage of non-destructive cropping is that it does not remove any
pixel. We can see the areas outside the crop box by clicking on the image.

If you want to delete any pixel outside the crop box, enable this option. These pixels will
be deleted permanently and will not be available for future adjustment.

Content-Aware Fill on the Crop Tool

The latest version of Photoshop comes with content-aware technology with a crop tool.
The content-aware technology automatically fills the gap while using the crop tool. It is
useful for straightening or rotating an image or expanding the image canvas.

To apply the content-aware layout, follow the below steps:

Step1: Select the crop tool from the toolbox or pressing the C key and select the crop
area by dragging over the image canvas.

Step2: Now, mark the content-aware option from the option bar.

Now, we can straighten or rotate the image using the handles give at the edges of the
crop box. We can also expand the image canvas from its original size.

Once you are satisfied with the result, click Enter key to finalize the operation.

Let's understand how to straighten images using the Crop tool.

How to Straighten an Image Using the Crop Tool

The straighten tool is used to straighten an image. This tool is a sub-option of the crop
tool.

Sometimes, we click the image, and due to the camera angle, our image may be
crooked. So, we can fix this using the crop tool.

To straighten an image using the crop tool, open the image and activate the crop tool.

We can find the straighten option at the top menu bar of the crop tool. Click on the
straighten option and drag the mouse in the respective direction to straighten the image.
After releasing the mouse, Photoshop will automatically rotate the image in the specified
direction.

How to Cancel the Cropping

Sometimes after specifying the crop box region, we don't want to crop the image.
Photoshop allows us to cancel the cropping at any moment. However, if we have
pressed the Enter key and finalized the crop process, we can undo changes by pressing
the Ctrl+Z or Ctrl+Alt+Z key combination. If the cropping is still in process, then click on
the below icon from the crop menu bar:

It will instantly cancel the cropping process and take the image in its original size.

How to Move the Crop Box

If you want to move or reposition the selection, you can easily do this in Photoshop. To
move the crop box, click on the crop box and drag it anywhere on the image canvas.
Also, we can reposition the image rather than the crop box. To reposition the image,
click at any point of the image, holding down the mouse button, and drag it to any place
where you want to reposition the image.
Moving the image inside the box is not supported by the earlier versions of Photoshop.
In the older version, it will move the crop box instead of the image. But, the latest version
of Photoshop allows us to place the image wherever we want in the crop box.

How to Resize the Crop Box

To resize the crop box after specifying the cropping region, select the corner points of
the crop box and resize them in any direction as per requirement.

If you want to resize it from all sides, press the Alt key while dragging the slider.