Session 12 [Mon 121108] - Quiz #2/ Selection Techniques - From Basic to Intermediate

Make-Up Class
To make up for the cancellation of Session 11, Fri 141108 is a make up day. We will start at 2:00pm as usual. This is a chance to gear up for the concept presentation on Monday and to answer any concerns you have about preparing the chronological folio of research and all other preparation work.

Also, to accompany the folio, in a folder of well organised digital files, you should be evidencing most, if not all, of the techniques outlined and demonstrated in class, deployed by yourselves in Photoshop files as experimental try outs or as final concept development files.

Quiz#2 Answers
Answers here

Selection Techniques
The heart of today's class was selection/masking techniques.

• Marquee, Lasso - the usual suspects. These are a halfway house to any decent selection. The Marquee comes in Rectangular and Elliptical forms. Try out the Octagonal and Magnetic versions of the Lasso. Use Shift M or Shift L to cycle through the respective tool sets.


• Magic Wand - another usual-suspect selection tool. The magic wand is at the root of the remaining selection techniques seen today. By setting the Tolerance levels to multiples of eight you can increase or decrease the amount of pixels selected. A fair starter selection tool when you have a clear background but there are better tools for the job.
  However, as with many of the following tools, creative possibilites abound if the tool is used experimantally.


• Replace Color and Color Range [We didn't have time for these today. Try them out in your own time.] - Using an eyedropper/fuzziness slider combination, clicking in the dialog box preview, or in the main image, you can choose and refine a colour or series of colours to change in the Replace Color command. Using Hue/Saturation style sliders in the Replace Color tool, the colour, saturation, and lightness of the chosen colour can be altered. Alternatively, using a similar eyedropper/ fuzziness slider model, selections can be generated with the Color Range command.


• Background Eraser Tool [Again we ran out of time for a demonstrationof the Eraser tools but try them for yourselves] - A tool introduced in Version 5 of Photoshop. By sampling a single colour or via the continuous sampling of colours as you erase, the background to your desired element can gradually be removed. Use the Option bar to choose the sampling options. This Background Eraser tool becomes more powerful used in combination with Extract and the History Brush


• The Extract Filter and History Brush - I do not have space here to give you a detailed description of how to operate the Extract Filter. Please refer to your notes or the Photoshop Help menu. Recall, that using the TouchUp tools inside the filter's window, you can refine your edges. Once back in the Photoshop File Window, use the History Brush/ Background Eraser to restore/ remove further parts of the image. Photoshop doesn't get much more powerful than this tool combo.


• Other Selection Features - In the Select menu there are tools for Expanding and Growing a selection. You saw how to Add and Subtract using any of the above tools with the Shift and Alt keys respectively.


• Checking the State of a Selection - As you saw, the Extract filter allows you to check the current state of your selection without committing to it.
  
  With other selection tools you can try the following procedure to see how it's going. Copy your selection [Apple C] to a new document [Apple N - no need to check the values], paste the selection [Apple V] - So far, these steps alone constitute a good technique for isolating image elements in their own new file.
  
  To complete your selection check, fill the background layer with a 50% grey [Click on foreground swatch, choose a mid grey, and use Apple Backspace to fill the layer with grey] Your selection edge will be clearly evident against the neutral grey. Alternatively, paste your selection to the background you know you are going to use. Next, use or continue refining your selection.


• Quick Mask and Pen Tool - Today's class was about some of the less well known selection methods. The tools shown today are also capable of being used for some adhoc creative effects. Feel free to add the use of the Quick Mask [Covered today in depth] and the Pen tool [Not Covered today but please use if it is within your repertoire.]. Otherwise enjoy the results achievable with the tools above.


• And Remember - quality selections should take time. Up to 70-80% of the work on any montage.

Quick Fill

A personal favorite of mine - the fill with background/ foreground colour shortcut.
Use Alt Backspace to fill with the background swatch colour. Use Apple Backspace to fill with the foreground colour. Easy. Great for quick graphic silhouettes of previously photographic objects/elements.

Anti-aliasing

Finally, today we also covered the difference between a jaggy and an anti-aliased selection. I'll leave wikipedia to explain this one. Try not to fall asleep!