Or is it 3 choices to make a selection… I don’t know.

Anyways, as promised, this week I will be showing a little bit about how to use an image manipulator like Photoshop or the Gimp. (If you missed it, last week I talked about why we all need a photoshopping tool, and why, the Gimp is a great free option.) So where to start. There are lots of topics which I would call “first steps,” but there is no easy place to start where you won’t be a little confused. The only way to learn it is to jump right in. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, and try to make it fun.

With that in mind, get a picture that you like maybe your family, or your pet rock, or your favorite tree, because we’re gonna learn the three ways to make a selection.

A selection is possibly the most important concept when it comes to photo editing. Basically, a selection is making declaring an inside, and an outside. A selection is demarcated by a thin flashing line. Anything, inside the space is what you want the computer to change, and everything else should be left alone. Got it? You will. We will start by making a selection then inverting that selection to delete the background (once you’ve made a selection go to selection > invert) and then press delete.

Choice #1: Manual Selection: the top row of the tools panel (the window on the left) includes three completely manual selection tools. The first three in order, are the rectangle select tool, the ellipse select tool, and the free select tool. These functions are mostly self-explanatory, and I’m sure with a little fooling around, I know you can figure these out. I would however like to help with a few tricks. First, if you don’t like the selection you have made you can either go to edit > undo if it was the last action you performed, or you can go to select > none (Ctrl + shift + A is the hotkey). That way you can get it right. Also, while you have any selection tool active there are three a few helpful buttons that appear. The selection mode. They tell the computer how you would like it to deal with every selection you make. The first mode is default, it clears any previous selection and replaces it with the new selection. The second mode, merges the new selection with the old selection (this is a great way to build a complicated selection piece by piece). The third mode subtracts the new selection from the old one. And the final mode selects the area of overlap between the two selections.

#2: Color Selection: The next two buttons are color selection tools. The fuzzy select tool asks the computer to select the area of the picture that the computer deems “connected” to the spot of the picture you click on. The next tool is the select by color tool. This selects all the areas of the picture which have a similar color to the spot of the picture you click on. Both of these are powerful tools, and in addition to the selection modes both of these tools have an option that is incredibly important. That is the threshold slider. This slider signals to the computer how strict it should be with it’s selection, the lower the number the more strict, conversely, the higher the number the more lenient. Play around with these, it might just blow your mind.

#3: Assisted Manual Selection: The final tool on the top line, is the Scissors select tool. This works kind of like the free select tool, except that the computer “guesses” where you might mean your selection to go. You have to give the computer anchor points where you’d like the line to go, but from these anchor points, the computer extrapolates what you might mean. Basically, this tool combines the automation of color selection and recognition with the added bonus of more direct human guidance. To use this tool effectively, I suggest making many, many anchor points. But you will be excited by the results.

That brings us to the end of the top line of the tools. The fact is, there are still two more tools for making selections, but I will save their discussion for another time. For now, try to make a good selection and see how powerful it can be. Try cutting out something interesting and send it back to me (Benn@TatStore.com). I’d love to see how you are coming.

Hang in there until next week. Next week we’ll make some images for a website.