Lesson 2: Selection

Reason for Selecting

• To isolate an area (multiple uses)
• To cut an object/person out or to remove the background

SHORTCUTS

Lasso Tool - l
Marquee Tool - m
Wand Tool - w
Delete - del
Zoom Tool - z
Move Tool - v

  PART A: Select/Cut Out Background                                                           

Selecting parts of an image is similar to masking in art, you use masking fluid or tape to stop the paint from interfering with the rest of the artwork. You'll find more uses for this as you get better.

The hardest thing to cut out, in my opinion, is hair. It is worst when the background is busy and you can't just use the wand tool. Part A will teach you how to use the THREE selection tools (all the keyboard shortcuts are listed at the top of this post): the lasso tool, the marquee tool, and the wand tool. 

P.S We'll be using this technique in future lessons, such as Colouring - Hair, Skin, Makeup, Clothes, etc and Blending - Blends, Banners, etc. However, selecting can be used to make vectors although the resolution isn't as good on programs like Pixlr.


For simplicity's sake I will be demonstrating the tools on the same image. I copied the url of this image by Dalmava from pixabay. 

I love pixabay because there are great quality images that you can edit if they have the appropriate copyright (check the copyright, wattpad has a simple explanation of different copyrights that can help, click here to be led there).

Before I forget, you must also unlock the background by double clicking to allow edits to happen (technically should have been the first step). I have also added a duplicate layer to show you some modification you can make if the wand tool is not satisfactory. Let me remind you that I will be using the same photo to demonstrate all three photos, but you can use the tool that suit YOUR image or a combination of tools that will help you achieve the effect you want.

1. The Wand Tool (w)

First you want to select the wand tool and click the background or the area you want to get rid of. 



Once you've selected the area you want (the wand tool works best with simple images with a solid background) click delete (del) on your keyboard. Then deselect (ctrl+d)

Your background should be checkered now. This means you have a transparent background. 

1b. Modified Wand Tool

I will be demonstrating this on the duplicate layer. The regular setting for the wand tool is tolerance: 21; checked anti-alias and contiguous. 

For those who are unsure what those words mean I will provide an explanation below. For those who do know, you can skip it.

Contiguous: This option will make Pixlr only select pixels that fall within the accepted tone and colour range determined by the tolerance and are beside the area you clicked. 

Anti-alias: Pixels are squares and often look harsh, to avoid this effect when selecting. This Pixlr option known applies a slight blur to the edges to give it a smoother appearance.

Tolerance: An option that controls the selection of tone and colour, it determines that range of colour that the wand selects. Essentially it is based on brightness levels and ranges from 0 to 255. Let us determine that 'X' is the level of tolerance. The tolerance will select X shades darker and X shades lighter than the initial shade you clicked on. When you select a part of an image, Pixlr will select similar shades of that colours, but the lighter or darker shades remain unselected.

• Setting the Tolerance to 0 selects one colour only.
• Setting the Tolerance to 22 selects all colours (i.e. the entire image).

The default is 21. For this modification I increase it 25. Delete background and deselect. Tolerance is all about trial and error. To change the tolerance, you can adjust the slider or type it manually. Note that you need to reselect sections to use the new tolerance level. 

There are some parts I don't want. For this I'd clean it up with an eraser and/or lasso tool. Generally, I use the lasso tool if I want control and an eraser if I can be more free. I highlight the difference in a close up.

Hard Eraser vs Modified Tolerance vs Polygonal Lasso Tool

Here is a quick tip that will help you determine if your edges are clean. Put a coloured background that is not similar in value (ie. if you want to get rid of dark outlines, do not put a dark background). You can change the background to see how it looks on different colours/shades.

Shift - Add Selection

Ctrl - Subtract Selection

^ Most helpful with the last tool.

2. The Marquee Tool (m)

This selection tool is the least helpful for complex photographs, but if you want to select certain parts of an image to move around or something similar it is great and it is really simple. There are two shapes: 

• elliptical
• rectangular

You can adjust the size by changing the constraint. I've talked about this in lesson 1, but basically there are three types: 

• no restrictions (self-explanatory)
• aspect ratio (the ratio of the width to the height of an image or screen.)
• fixed size (adjust width and height in pixels).

You also have the options to feather. When applied to a rectangular marquee the corners become more round (this becomes more noticeable as you increase the feather), the edges are also soft as if you were using a soft eraser. Great for blending. Same effect on the elliptical marquee, but since an ellipsis has no edges it does not make it more round.

For this demo, I am using the elliptical marquee, constraint using an aspect ratio of 1:1 (width:1 to height:1). First, drag your cursor and pull downwards to create a marquee selection. You can move the selection to the desired place by holding your cursor on the selection and moving it. Do not move the selection using the move tool or else you'll move the image. 

Below is what happens if you use the wrong tool (i.e. the move tool) to move the selection. 

Using the wrong tool: coloured background vs transparent background

Now this can create a cool effect if that is what you are going for, but it is bad if it is unintentional. 

So stay on the marquee unless you want that effect. Now we can either cut out the flower or we can inverse the selection to keep the flower. Both ways have great results.

I'll demonstrate the inverse selection first with a black background.



I adjusted the feather to 5 (10 in image, but 5 later on). I have three layers: the original image, the flower with a transparent background (hidden), and a coloured background. I go to Edit> Inverse Selection. Then I delete (del). Then I deselect (ctrl+d). 

Now I unhide the the flower with a transparent background layer.and change the background colour or add another background/texture.

With coloured background

You can also not inverse selection and that creates an interesting effect as well. For the sake of time, I'll leave it at that.

Play around with the features. Like I mentioned earlier, this will be extremely helpful/important when learning how to make blends/banners and colourings.

3. The Lasso Tool (l)

The lasso tool is a more flexible form of selection. Unlike the marquee tool which only has two shapes or the wand tool that selects according to tone and colour, you can use the lasso tool to create custom shapes that are not limited to certain shapes or colours.The best and most complex selection tool.

There are two lasso tools:

• Freehand Lasso Tool
• Good for organic shapes (shapes with curves, no edges)
• Requires a stead hand
• Polygonal Lasso Tool (my fav)
• Good for geometric shapes (shapes with edges)
• Okay with organic shapes, but not as smooth 
• Requires patience and lots of time to get a good organic shape

If you have a graphic tablet I'm sure the freehand lasso tool would be much easier, but if you don't I'd stick to the polygonal lasso tool. A tip when working on big images is to work in sections.

Use Modifier Keys

If you make a mistake before starting over, try use the modifier keys: Shift or Ctrl.

Just like the other selection tools you can feather the selection or uncheck the anti-alias.

Below is a comparison photo, I will not show the lasso tool because I used it in combination with the wand tool already.

If you want to know how to cut out a person, click here. The mini lesson uses the old pixlr format, but it should still be easy to follow.

  PART B: PNGs and Transparents                                                              

Now that you know how to cut out images using the selection tools you can make a PNG (Portable Network Graphics). PNG actually refers to the file type that you need to save the image as to keep the background transparent. On Wattpad, PNG is synonymous with transparents (an image with a transparent background, typically a person). 

Making PNGs is a great skill to have because plenty of people would like to make blends change the backgrounds (mix 'n match) to create a graphic. 

TIP: Save your graphics as a PNG to keep the full quality of the image.

1. Make sure background is transparent.
2. File> Save (Save to My Computer or Pixlr Library)
3. Edit Name
4. Change Format to PNG (Transparent, full quality)
5. Click Ok. 
6. A pop-up will appear. Click Save.

 NEXT LESSON:

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WANT PRACTICE? 

Practice assignment will be posted on Wednesday, July 13th on the thread.