how to use magic wand tool in photoshop 7

#How to use magic wand tool in photoshop 7 how to

The Quick selection tool or magic wand tool is one of the finest tools in Photoshop to choose a similar color region automatically. Here's an example showing the use of the Refine Edge Brush, creation of the mask, and then toggling the mask on and off. Change Object Color Using Quick Selection Tool or Magic Wand Tool. This will create an almost perfect mask, without any halos of white, and just the right amount of transparency around the edges so you can place it over any background image you desire. Release the mouse button when it looks good. Select the Refine Edge Brush tool, make the brush large using the square bracket keys to adjust the size.Ĭlick on the background area and without releasing the mouse button, paint over all the areas where the background meets the subject, to remove all the remaining white background. Select the Magic Wand, deselect the 'Contiguous' option, set the Tolerance to 20, and click on a white areaĬlick on Select and Mask, set the View to: On Black, at 100% If you have Photoshop CC, then you could use the Select and Mask functionality to refine a selection made with the Magic Wand.

The second image took maybe 1 or 2 minutes to refine the mask for shadows, but it could use a bit more time. With both these duplicate layers visible, you can alter the blending mode and/or opacity of the shadows to better the overall appearance.īoth these image took roughly 30 seconds each to mask. This gives me a separate layer to control the cast shadows. On the second duplicate I go in with a brush and manually mask everything except the shadows.

#How to use magic wand tool in photoshop 7 how to

On the first duplicate I go in with a brush and manually mask the shadows. In this lesson, learn how to use the Eraser, Quick Selection, and Magic Wand Tools, which provide greater control when eliminating specific areas of an image. You may need to extract the shadows to a separate layer to better control their appearance. Hold down the Option/Alt and click the New Mask button ( ) at the bottom of the Layers Panel.įrom here you may need to go in with a brush and manually refine the mask in a few places.įor images such as this one with pronounced cast shadows. Go back and highlight your Layer in the Layers Panel.

Use Levels or Curves to boost the contrast on the copy.Ĭommand/Ctrl-click the duplicate channel thumbnail in the Channels Panel to load it as a selection.

Duplicate that channel in the Channels Panel.

in this case I've chosen the Blue channel. Channels allow you to retain shadows and subtle drop offs in many instances.įind a channel with decent high contrast. But beyond that it's pretty horrible.Ĭhannels are often easier and faster than any other selection technique if the subject is already isolated on white. The Magic Wand method can work for hard edged objects without any cast shadows. However, it's not often the 'best' method, in fact it's among the worst. Unfortunately, I realize it is the 'go to' method for many users.

In my opinion, the Magic Wand tool is about the worst method for extracting a background in 95% of all use cases.