Make Use Of A Miracle Wand Tool

Graphics programs and photo manipulation software are designed to offer users a number of ways to change and interact with pictures and other images. Because of the large number of functions that these programs feature, they also feature a several methods by which users can select or exclude certain portions of an image in order to be able to make the specific adjustments they want. One of the more useful of these is the Magic Wand tool, which appears in several different graphics programs and allows users to select entire sections that feature a single color. Though programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel PaintShop Pro and the Graphic Image Manipulation Program (better known as GIMP) differ in many of their functions, the method by which the Magic Wand tool (or, as GIMP calls it, the Fuzzy Select tool) is used similarly in all of them.

Instructions

The Magic Wand in Photoshop

1. Select the Magic Wand tool from the Photoshop toolbox. The icon for the Magic Wand tool looks like a black wand with a burst of light at one end, representing a magic wand as might be used by a magician. The icon is located near the top of the toolbox with the other selection tools.

2. Look at the options bar that contains the options that you can use to adjust the function of your Magic Wand tool. The options bar should appear under the Photoshop menu bar once the tool is selected, and will feature checkboxes, a text box where you can enter a value for "Tolerance" and a series of icons that represent different selection types.

3. Choose the selection type that you wish to use with your Magic Wand. The available options are "Create New Selection", "Add to Existing Selection," "Subtract from Existing Selection" and "Intersect with Existing Selection." Many users simply leave the Magic Wand set to the default of "Create New Selection," but as you become more familiar with the tool, you may find that using the other selection types can give you greater overall control of your image.

4. Set the color tolerance. Enter a numeric value between zero and 255 into the box labeled "Tolerance" in order to determine how sensitive your Magic Wand tool will be when selecting colors. Low numbers signify that the colors selected will have to be closer to the exact hue of the color that you select with the tool, while larger numbers will allow the tool to select that color, as well as a range of hues both above and below it.

5. Check the checkboxes for the additional options that you want your Magic Wand tool to use. Check "Anti-Aliased" in order to turn anti-aliasing (which removes distortion from images when converted to a lower resolution, causing your selection to be smoother) on or off. Check "Contiguous" in order to select colors within the selected range which touch the selected pixel; uncheck it in order to select all colors in the selected range within the entire image. Check "Use All Layers" in order to select colors from all layers of the image, or uncheck it in order to select only within the current layer.

6. Position the Magic Wand tool over the color that you wish to select within the image and click the left mouse button. All colors that are within the range you set in your "Tolerance" from the color of the pixel you clicked on will be selected (within the limitations set by your options bar).

The Magic Wand in PaintShop Pro

7. Select your Magic Wand tool in the same manner that you would in Photoshop. The icon for the Magic Wand in PaintShop Pro features a black wand with white tips.

8. Choose a "Match Mode" from the drop-down menu in the Magic Wand options box. The available modes are "RGB" (which matches colors based on their red, blue and green values), "Hue" (which matches colors based on their coordinates on the color wheel), "Brightness" (which matches colors based on the amount of white that they contain), "All Opaque" (which matches based on a lack of transparency) and "Opacity" (which matches based on the opacity of pixels in comparison to those around them).

9. Set the "Tolerance" of the Magic Wand tool, which works in much the same way as "Tolerance" does in Photoshop. Note that "Tolerance" will only be accessible when the "Match Mode" is one that matches based on color and not opacity.

10. Adjust the "Feather" of the Magic Wand tool in order to be able to select additional pixels outside of the strict limit of the matched color or opacity. The "feathered" portion of your selection will be the pixels immediately surrounding what would be selected based on your "Match Mode" and tolerance settings. Some feathering can help prevent having too crisp of a border to your selection, though too much feathering may cause you to select unwanted portions of the surrounding image as well.

11. Check the box next to "Sample Merged" if you wish to be able to select colors or transparency from any layer of the image you are editing; the Magic Wand tool will treat the image as having been merged into a single layer for the purpose of selection. Leave the checkbox empty if you wish to only select from the active layer.

12. Position your Magic Wand tool over a pixel of the color or opacity that you wish to select and click the left mouse button. A portion of your image will be selected as per your Magic Wand tool settings.

The Fuzzy Select Tool in GIMP

13. Select the Fuzzy Select tool in the same manner that you would select the Magic Wand in Photoshop or PaintShop Pro. The icon for the Fuzzy Select tool features a black wand with a glowing tip.

14. Choose a "Mode" in the same manner that you would choose a selection type in Photoshop. You have four mode icons, representing the "Create New Selection," "Add to Existing Selection," "Subtract from Existing Selection" and "Intersect with Existing Selection" options as were discussed in the Photoshop section above.

15. Check the boxes next to the options that you want your Fuzzy Select tool to use. The options available to you are "Antialiasing," "Feather Edges," "Select Transparent Areas" and "Sample Merged." You should be familiar with the function of "Antialiasing," "Feather Edges" and "Sample Merged" from the Photoshop and PaintShop Pro portions above; the new option, "Select Transparent Areas," determines whether the Fuzzy Select tool will be able to make a selection if the clicked pixel is transparent.

16. Adjust the "Threshold" slider in order to set the selection threshold for the Fuzzy Select tool. Threshold works exactly like tolerance does in Photoshop and PaintShop Pro, allowing you to select how close of a match to the selection a color has to be in order to be included in the selection.

17.Choose the method of selection from the "Select By" drop-down menu. This works much like the "Match Mode" in PaintShop Pro, with the options being "Composite" and the colors and shades that "Composite" is a combination of "Red," "Green," "Blue," "Hue," "Saturation" and "Value." Unless you have a specific reason to choose one of the other options (such as wanting to select all colors that have a certain amount of red in them or that match a specific hue), you will most likely leave the method of selection set to "Composite."

18. Click on a pixel of the color that you wish to select, just as you would with Photoshop or PaintShop Pro.

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Tuesday, September 17, 2013