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Subsections
3.5 Using Selections Effectively
This section begins the discussion of how to effectively use the
selection tools presented in this chapter. The full story, however,
won't be completed until we cover masks in Chapter
4.
3.5.1 General Selection Tool Guidelines
This chapter has presented the six selection tools from the Toolbox as
well as the By Color selection tool. This leaves you with
quite a few choices. So, the question naturally arises, ``Which is
the best tool to use?'' This section summarizes the tools discussed
so far and describes their strengths and weaknesses.
The order of the summary is from the most useful selection tool to the
least:
- Bezier Path : Of the seven choices, this
is the most useful selection tool because it is the most flexible and
the most versatile. Combined with the associated tools available in
the Paths dialog, this is the selection tool that will usually get the
job done in the least amount of time.
The Bezier Path selection tool is not, however, a panacea. When
the selection subject's boundary is not smooth, it is impractical to
use the Bezier Path tool. Examples of difficult selections with
this tool would be the image of a leafy tree or one of a woman's hair
blowing in the breeze. For these types of selections, other
approaches are necessary (see Chapter
4).
- Lasso :
Although this tool is not useful for precision selection work, it is
probably still the next most useful selection tool. The Lasso
is the best selection tool when only a rough selection is needed.
Good examples of using the Lasso to separate image elements is
illustrated in Sections
4.5.3 and
7.4.
- Rectangle Select : This selection
tool is about as useful as the Lasso. However, it is used for
very different reasons. This tool is valuable for framing (see
Section
2.6.2) and for the selective
application of filters and gradients to layer edges (see, for example,
Section
7.5.3).
- By Color : This selection tool is
most useful for making selections in images that have several regions
that consist of an almost uniform color. Examples of this would be
trying to select a large-font, solid-color text on a photographic
image background or a complicated bitmapped image. See
Section
8.6 for a practical example.
- Ellipse Select : This tool, like Rectangle Select, is also used for framing. An example of using Ellipse Select in this way is shown in Section
3.1.2.
It is also occasionally useful for selecting shapes that are known to
be elliptical or circular, such as the clock illustrated in
Section
3.5.4. This tool, however, is used less often than
Rectangle Select.
- Magic Wand : This
tool is based on a great concept but is difficult to use in practice.
Fortunately, there is another technique based on almost the same idea
but producing results with much greater control and flexibility. This
technique is based on the Threshold tool, which is described in
more detail in Section
4.5.3.
- Intelligent Scissors : In principle
this tool should be good at selecting shapes that do not have smooth
outlines, the shapes that are difficult for the Bezier Path
tool. Unfortunately, the performance of this tool is poor and I,
personally, never use it. I rank this tool as the least useful for
making selections.
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