Try Tuts+ Premium, Get Cash Back!
How to Make Fast but Precise Selections – Basix
basix

How to Make Fast but Precise Selections – Basix

on Mar 16th 2011 with 39 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Program: Adobe Photoshop
  • Difficulty: Beginner
  • Estimated Completion Time: 10 Minutes

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

This entry is part 14 of 29 in the Photoshop Basix Session
« PreviousNext »

Are you new to Photoshop? Have you been trying to teach yourself the basics of Photoshop but have found the amount of educational material available on the net a bit overwhelming? As the world’s #1 Photoshop site, we’ve published a lot of tutorials. So many, in fact, that we understand how overwhelming our site may be to those of you who may be brand new to Photoshop. This tutorial is part of a 25-part video series demonstrating everything you will need to know to start working in Photoshop.

Photoshop Basix, by Adobe Certified Expert and Instructor, Martin Perhiniak includes 25 short video tutorials, around 5 – 10 minutes in length that will teach you all the fundamentals of working with Photoshop. Today’s tutorial, Part 14: How to Make Fast but Precise Selections will explain the quick selection tool, the quick mask, and the pixel mask. Let’s get started!

Tags: Basix
 
Enjoyed this Post?

Subscribe to our RSS Feed, Follow us on Twitter or simply recommend us to friends and colleagues!

By

Rollover to read this author's bio or click through to see a full list of posts by this author.

Martin is a Hungarian graphic designer, digital artist and an Adobe Certified Expert and Instructor (Design Master). He is currently teaching and working in London but usually travels around the UK and share his love for Adobe products and graphic design. You can follow him on his blog or on Twitter.  

Plus Premium
 
 
  • rospiz

    useful thanks!

  • http://www.exabytedesigns.com/blog/ Khalid Majid Ali

    Nice tips, really like the accent!

  • 7

    In the amount of time you spent drawing / painting your selection on with the quick select, and then refining the selection (which was still incredibly rough and imprecise from a professional standpoint) I could have used the pen tool to create a Very Precise vector mask. I’m surprised it’s taken you this long to mention it, let alone cover it in a video. I was beginning to think you’d ignore it completely. ;)

    • http://www.bryan-kun.deviantart.com Bryan G. C.

      I agree the Pen Tool would be better from a technical view, but the point of the video is to explain a selection to beginners. Usually they don’t know how to use the Pen Tool, but the Brush tool is extremely intuitive, so it’s better to teach.

    • http://isis-m.deviantart.com Isis-M

      I agree with you. =)

      And he missed the man’s shadow…

    • Badr Kachibal

      i do not agree with you man , sometimes the pen too can’t be useful for select a hair of your character for example ! but i agree with you that the pen tool is the best tool for pro selection :)
      Thanks

  • http://www.justforthealofit.com/ TheAL

    Only thing about this that bummed me out was the guy you used in your example. It looks like one of the easiest pics to cut out. I would love to see more quick selections made with photos of people with complex hair and clothing.

    • http://web.bethere.co.uk/bodiecreekbridge/ Steve

      Masking flyaway hair is a very complex topic. This tutorial is fine as an introduction to using masks and selections. It explains the concept and demonstrates the effects you can achieve very well. I agree that I would like to see a tutorial dedicated to flyaway hair in the future (near future please Mr Perhiniak). In the meantime, this set of tutorials continues to provide excellent value for money.
      Great job. Thanks.

    • 7

      I don’t recall exactly where I found it, but there’s a method for cutting out flames by using the channels pallet that *might* work on hair.. I havn’t tried it. I think this site may be where I encountered that tip, but I don’t recall.

  • strido

    I agree with Bryan. As a beginner, I enjoy these types of tuts. I always try to improve my use of the pen tool but it is not without some frustration. Photoshop pros may be able to do it with their eyes closed, but not beginners.

    Well done tut!

    • 7

      The pen tool requires a bit of practice, and it is a *very* powerful tool. Some of it’s features are hidden, and not particularly well documented. Using keyboard shortcuts that change the tool’s mode of operation on the fly are the easiest way to become a very fast and fluid pen tool operator. The great thing about paths is that TIFF’s can save the path data, so if you path-out a subject from a stock photo, then save as a *.tif, you’ll always have that path saved in that image for use in other projects. Very handy indeed.

      Not to say you couldn’t simply save a *.psd of your pixel/raster masked image once you’ve got it refined, but then you have your original plus an extra file. There’s a million different ways to skin a cat, as the phrase goes.

      • http://www.marioplanet.com Zach

        Thanks for the TIFF suggestion! That sounds quite helpful.

      • 7

        I didn’t want to post this last bit until I got some self-experimented confirmation, but *.jpg’s can do this as well. All you have to do is create your path, and save. It should still be there the next time you open the jpg in photoshop, as long as you don’t re-save it again in another application. Might be handy to know for those concerned with storage space, as the jpg’s would be a little easier on the HDD.

  • strido

    Almost forgot-

    Any thoughts of putting the complete series in one downloadable zip file or something?

  • http://slayyou2.deviantart.com/ Emmanuel Umukoro

    i’m inclined to say that there is no such thing as a fast precise selection. You get what you put into it.

    • 7

      There is definitely a point of diminishing return. It really depends on what you’re isolating, and what its final use is. This is a fine start for folks that are just beginning and really only have the barest understanding of the software, though.

  • http://www.tutcast.com Howard

    For beginners, it’s a great tip!

  • neil bloodtitan

    Nice tutorial. A good follow-up would be one that shows you how to remove the embarrassing choice of sunglasses the model had to endure. He must’ve felt a right berk in those sunglasses, even OAPs would decline to be seen in them. Poor fellow.

    Nice tutorial, thanks. Good for beginners and also the arrogant experienced.

  • Jon

    Quality tutorial. Thank you!

  • http://www.sgdoeschwitz.de Grün Weiss

    the work is not so good!

  • Trevor

    Great Tut as usual… Thanks

  • http://mokshasolutions.com Moksha

    nice didn’t knew about quick selection tool

  • http://www.marioplanet.com Zach

    Awesome series!

    I knew nothing about Photoshop before watching this series but now that I’ve been following it I’ve totally learned the basics and some awesome skills.

    Beastly accent by the way!

  • http://www.mundocaco.com MundoCaco

    useful extremely! thanks! i’ll practice :D

  • http://www.trout-technology.com Heidi

    Hi,
    I just wanted to say thank you for this video.. I am a total beginner, and I have tried to find tutorials and can’t find any ones that are straight and to the point for beginners..so thank you so much, I have totally learned from this video I was trying to do it all with the quick select tool, and it would take me forever to try and get every little part and …blah blah.. so thanks a million. Looking forward to watching all the videos now!!!

  • http://www.iwillinvitations.com.au Gayle

    I can’t tell you how much I look forward to a new tut in this series. You have such an easy teaching style and wealth of knowledge, I learn so much! It doesn’t hurt either that the accent is just a tad dreamy! LOL. Thanks so much. :)

  • Eliezerben

    your tutorials are always best .

  • bel kassem

    helpfull, thanks you! I’ll do it.

  • Le Sparte

    Many thanks for the tutorial! I’m a beginner and those 14 videos are the best introductions I’ve found yet.

    By the way, in the beginning of this post, you’re talking about 25 tuts. Did you changed your mind (contract)?

    Thanks anyway!

    • http://psd.tutsplus.com/ Grant Friedman

      There are still several more tutorials to come.

      • http://www.facebook.com/simbarashe.marisa Simbarashe Marisa

        Hi man hot do i play this video i have managed to play the previous video’s but now i cant please help, thanks for the nice videos

  • Felix

    Really useful session, thanks. Maybe you could do a video regarding how to minimize blur on photos? I know the best option is just to delete them, but some you just don’t want to. Thanks in advance

  • http://adfitness.ca Fitness studio

    Thanks for tutorial. It is so usefull and simple at the same time

  • James

    It’s Vincent Van Gogh! and another great Tutorial. Thanks

  • Lara

    Why is it that when I use the white brush tool and copy the image to another layer the parts i selected come transparent ?? someone help please.

  • http://www.allsnapbacks.info/ Sad Boy

    In the Video tutorial Martin did not increased the size of object on the mountains which is shown to be done, however a very good tutorial i liked small shortcuts and tips in the tutorial.

  • Susan

    Again I do get this advertisement playing in the video frame where ‘Fast & Precise selections window frame is!! It seems like a political figure form Latin America talking the whole video through!

    Frustrating!!!!!!!

  • vinkle

    why can i not access the next tutorial in basix – number 14 how to make fast but precise selections