Beginning Photoshop Worksheet
Making Selections | Quick Mask
In this worksheet you will make a selection using the Magnetic Lasso Tool, then you will edit the selection using a Quick mask. A Quick Mask is a temporary mask used to edit selections. You could theoretically make selections using a Quick Mask but it is usually better to start out with a halfway decent selection and then use the Quick Mask to edit it.
Once we have edited your selection with the Quick Mask and created a layer mask to hide it’s background you will drag the image into another image using the move tool to create a simple composite.
1. Download the images from the Work Files page on my web site. You will need to get the image called “cell_phone.jpg” and “SilverLake_Blurred.psd”. Click on the link for the image, once the image is fully loaded, right click (Control click on a Mac) then download the image.
2. Go back to Photoshop
3. Open “cell_phone.jpg”. Go to File > Open and then browse for the image, it’s most likely on the Desktop unless you specified somewhere else to save the files. We will open the other image later.
4. Choose the Magnetic Lasso Tool.
The Magnetic Lasso Tool clings to the edge of a change in tone as you drag your cursor along the edge of the item you are trying to select. Therefore, it works best where you have good contrast between the subject and it’s background, This tool very rarely gives you perfect results, but it’s a fast way to get a semi-decent selection that we will modify using the quick Mask.
5. This is what my Options Palette looks like.
For now make sure that you have the New Selection setting clicked and feather is set to 0. The New Selection button is the first of that set of four under the word Photoshop in the menu. The other three settings in this palette are all default settings and to keep it simple, they control how the tool clings to the edge.
The Options Palette changes from tool to tool. It is a palette that referred to as context sensitive, or contextual. In plain English this means it changes depending on what tool you have selected.
6. Start dragging your cursor along the edge of the phone, whenever you get to a severe corner or change in direction click to hold the selection in place. Be as accurate as you can but don’t be to concerned if you miss a bit. Remember the point of this exercise is to use the Quick Mask to clean up an imperfect selection. Once you get back to the start it should automatically change into the familiar “Marching Ants” if not, double click to finish the selection.
7. Click on the “Edit in Quick Mask Mode” icon at the bottom of the Tool Palette. Once you have clicked on the Edit in Quick Mask Mode icon. The area around the selection will be tinted red. This may vary is the default settings have been changed.
8. Double click on the Quick Mask icon to open the Quick Mask Options dialog box. Here you see you can swap between masked areas and Selected Areas. You can also change the color and opacity of tha Quick Mask. Click OK.
9. Choose the Zoom Tool (Z). Drag around an area in the mask that needs to be edited.
10. Choose the Brush Tool (B). Then choose the brush size. Check the Options Palette to make sure that the painting mode is set to normal, Opacity and Flow are both on 100%
11. Paint to add to the selection and subtract from the selection. Black ads to the mask (the red film) or deducts from the selection, white removes from the selection or ads to the mask (the red film).
Tip: You can toggle between Foreground and Background colors by using the X key. Also, you can change the brush size by using the open bracket and close brackets on the keyboard.
12. Move around the image to clean up all the areas that need to be fixed by using the Hand Tool. To save keep changing from the Brush Tool to the Hand Tool and back You can access the Hand Tool while on any other tool in the tools palette, except the Type Tool, by holding down the Space Bar. When you let go you will be still on the Brush Tool and you can continue to edit the mask.
13. Once you are happy that you have cleaned up your selection using the Quick Mask completely, click the Quick Mask icon. Now you will have a selection again.
There are a couple of things that are worth mentioning about Quick masks that make them a powerful tool in a would-be Photoshop guru’s arsenal. The fact that you can paint with a soft brush to effectively feather parts of a selection or use the Smudge Tool to smudge a selection is fantastic. It is also worth noting that you can select using any of the usual selection tools while in Quick mask mode to fill into areas of your mask rather than painting.
Now that we have our selection lets use it to cut the image out and drag the image into the blurred image that you also downloaded at the start of this worksheet.
14. If your layers Palette is not open go to Window > Layers to open the Layers Palette.
15. Double Click the Background layer and then in the dialog box that opens simply click OK.
16. Apply a Layer Mask by clicking on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette. Your layers will look like the screen capture (see screen capture).
17. Open the image that is called “SilverLake_Blurred.psd” that you had downloaded earlier. Go to File > Open (Command O, Control O on PC). Then Click back into the image that you just work on with the phone. If you need to; move this phone image out of the way so that you can see the Blurred image.
18. Choose the Move Tool and then drag the image of the phone into the blurred image. When you drag the image into the other image you may get a Paste Profile Mismatch warning, if so click OK.
19. Still on the Move Tool drag the image to the left hand side so that the hand is coming out of the bottom left corner of the image.
Congratulations! You managed to make a selection using the Magnetic Lasso convert it into a Quick Mask to edit that selection. After that you added a layer mask hiding the background and dragged the image into another document making a simple composite.
Practice makes perfect try going through the exercise again without looking at the worksheet. Once you feel comfortable trying using this technique on other images.
Final image