Working with Masks and Making Selections in Photoshop

Learn how to put an image inside text with Photoshop using a clipping mask.

This simple technique uses a duplicate color channel to create a mask for isolating a complicated selection.

Use the magnetic lasso tool and quick mask mode in Photoshop 5 to remove a complex background from an image in less than 10 minutes.

This technique uses the pen tool to create a path around the image and convert the path to a selection.

For some selections, a combination of tools and techniques is required. Here's one example where an image was isolated from the background using channels, levels, and the pen tool in combination.

An overview of the new extract command in Photoshop 5.5.

Learn about the new reselect command, the magnetic lasso tool, freeform pen tool, magnetic pen tool, and measurment tool introduced in Photoshop 5.5.

Wendy Peck thoroughly explains Photoshop's selection tools, and other important selection tasks including making selections with channels and color range, plus modifying, saving, and sharing selections.

"In compositing, there's nothing worse than a bad mask. And nowhere is it easier to mess up your mask than on a subject's hair, especially when it's blurred or obscured by a complex background or hazy foreground, making it pretty much impossible to get an accurate mask at all."

This excerpt from Using Photoshop 5 introduces you to the Quickmask mode of making selections.

Learn how to create and edit layer masks, then use them to create artistic effects.

Ron Lemire demonstrates a method of handling selections or masks that creates perfectly aligned edges. Great for colorizing.

Learn about the quick mask mode in Photoshop and see examples of how you can use it to perfect your selections.

In this tutorial, we will do this mostly in the context of removing backgrounds from pictures. In particular, we will be using lasso, magic wand, a quickmask, a layer mask, the pen tool, and a special selection using a threshold adjustment. Photoshop 6.0.