My Photoshop Classroom

Now that you see how the tools are all organized, let’s take a look at some of the most vital tools Photoshop has to offer. This is really just a cursory glance of the toolbox, as we’d be crazy to go into detail for EVERY SINGLE tool Photoshop has to offer in a single lesson, but you ought to now have an understanding what some of the tools are capable of. We’ll go over how to use many of these tools in later lessons.

Lasso Tools

The Lasso Selection Tools allow you to make selections of irregular shapes. Using the ordinary lasso tool, simply click and drag a freehand selection with your mouse. With the Polygonal Lasso Tool, click to make various points which will define a selection, and finish your selection by clicking the starting point.

The Magnetic Lasso Tool sort of combines the first two tools mentioned here. You click once, and begin to drag a freehand selection around the object you wish to select. The magnetic lasso tool tries to automatically create points itself while you follow the edge of your object (you can define points by  clicking if needed). The end result is a much  smoother selection than the polygonal lasso tool will make.

Now we have a general idea of how to make selections of various shapes in Photoshop. There is also a way to select objects and areas based on color.

Move Tool

The Move Tool is used for moving selected areas of an image, layers, shapes, and other objects.

To move a selected part of an image, simply select the move tool, and then click and drag your selection as you please. This will Cut the selection out from it’s current location, and reposition it to wherever you release the mouse button.

Essentially, moving a selected object is like cutting out a part of a painting, and then putting it somewhere else. Just like cutting something out from a painting, the area which was cutout will now show whatever is behind the canvas (in this case, the background color, or layer behind that area).

Magic Wand Tool / Quick

The Magic Wand Tool is unlike the rest of the selection tools, in that is selects areas based on color. To use the Magic Wand Tool, you simply point and click the color you wantto select in the active image area.

Now we have a general idea of how to make selections of various shapes in Photoshop. There is also a way to select objects and areas based on color.

Here’s a tip that ought to come in handy! While using the Magic Wand Tool, it’s possible to select a wider (or more narrow) range of colors when making your selection by adjusting the Tolerance  value in the options bar. The higher the value, the more similar colors will be selected!