Using Selections

Selections are used in image editing to restrict the area affected by an edit to a user defined region in the active layer. Any edits you make will not go outside the selection boundary. Selections are made with selection tools. When a selection is made with the selection tool it is made visible by a dashed line or marching ants border to show the selected area. To close a selection use 'Select -> Deselect' from the menu.

Selection Tools

The selection tools are used to create selected regions in the image. Each tool allows a selection to be made from a specific shape or from certain image processing operations.

Rectangular Marquee
Elliptical Marquee
Lasso
Polygon Lasso

Editing with Selections

Editing with selections is usually accomplished in three step process. The first is to define the area that you want to apply an edit to. This involves selecting the selection tool that best fits the area that you want to select. For example if you have a perfectly round beach ball in your image the best tool to use would be the elliptical marquee tool.

With the selection created you can now apply the edit. If you apply the brush tool inside the elliptical marquee of the beach ball then the brush will be restricted inside the boandary.

When the edit is completed close the selection to end limiting further edits to the selected area. This can be done from the 'Select -> Deselect' Menu.