Contents
An Introduction to the Quick Selection Tool
How to Make Selections with the Quick Selection Tool
How to Refine and Preview Your Selections
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How to Make Selections with the Quick Selection Tool
If you know how to use Photoshop’s Brush tool, you already know the basics of how to use the Quick Selection tool—you brush within the area that you’d like to select, and Photoshop does the rest. The sample image shown here contains one highlighted leaf.
The steps that follow in this guide show how to
select the highlighted leaf, and then how to refine and preview
the selection.
1. Zoom In on Your Target Area
Zoom in closely so you can focus on the “target area”—the portion of the image that you’d like to select. To zoom in, press Ctrl+Plus Sign (Comand+Plus Sign on a Mac).
2. Adjust the Size of Your Brush
The size of the brush you should use to make selections with the Quick Selection tool
depends on how large of a “target area” you’re working with. As with the standard Photoshop Brush tool, the size of the Quick Selection tool’s brush is measured in pixels (px).
A 50px brush has a diameter of 50 pixels, and so on. Brush sizes range from 1–2500 px. Generally speaking, follow these guidelines when choosing a Quick Selection tool brush size:
- Use a larger brush to select the main portion of the target area. For instance, in the sample leaf image, you’d use a large brush to select the majority of the inside portion of the leaf. To increase the size of the Quick Selection tool brush, press the right bracket key (]).
- Use a smaller brush to select the more intricate parts of your target area. In the sample leaf image, for instance, you might use a smaller brush to select portions of the leaf’s outer edges. To decrease the size of the brush, press the left bracket key ([).
Since the Quick Selection tool is so effective at automatically guessing the selection you’d like to make, often you’ll only need to use one size brush to make your entire selection.
3. Check the “Sample All Layers” Option (If Applicable)
By default, Photoshop selects pixels only in the layer in which you’re currently working. If your image has more than one layer and you’d like to make your selection apply to all of the layers at once, check the box next to Sample All Layers in the Quick Selection tool’s toolbar.
4. Use the Brush to Select the Target Area
Click and hold the left mouse button while moving the brush within the target area. Photoshop will automatically activate the Add to Selection icon 
in the Quick Selection toolbar (and deactivate the New Selection icon 
) once you start painting. As you paint, you’ll see the boundaries of your selection (the dotted line of “marching ants”) expand to fill the target area.
in the Quick Selection toolbar (and deactivate the New Selection icon ) once you start painting. As you paint, you’ll see the boundaries of your selection (the dotted line of “marching ants”) expand to fill the target area. Once the selection has expanded to fill the target area completely, let go of the left mouse button. At that instant, you will have made the selection—you can then add to it, subtract from it, and refine and preview it. In the sample image, as the brush is moved from right to left, the selection expands until the entire leaf is selected—you don’t need to change the size of the brush.
How to Add to or Subtract from the Selection
Sometimes, you’ll make a selection and then decide to add to or remove parts from the selection. Rather than start from scratch, you can easily add to or subtract from the selection by following these steps:
- To add to a selection: With the Quick Selection tool selected, click on the additional areas of the selection that you’d like to add. Photoshop will automatically fuse those sections with the current selection. You can continue clicking on additional areas until you’ve made the entire selection.
-
To subtract from a selection: With the Quick Selection tool selected, hold down the Alt key (the Option key on a Mac) and paint within the areas that you’d like to remove from the current selection. Alternatively, you can click on the Subtract from Selection icon
in the Quick Selection tool’s toolbar and then paint within the areas that you’d like to subtract. - To make multiple selections: If you’d like to make two or more separate selections active on the same image at once, hold down the Shift key and click on the areas that you’d like to select. Rather than fuse the new areas that you click on, Photoshop will create a new unique selection without eliminating the selection(s) you’ve made previously.
-
To make an entirely new selection: If you’d like to clear the selection(s) you’ve made and start from scratch, click on the New Selection icon
in the Quick Selection tool’s toolbar. Start painting to create a new selection.
When adding or subtracting, it’s often helpful to adjust the size of your brush first, to make it easier to pinpoint the pixels that you’d like to add or remove.
5. Adjust the Settings of the Brush (If Necessary)
Though many of the selections that you make with the Quick Selection tool will work perfectly the first time, sometimes you’ll need to adjust the settings of the brush to get the results you want. To adjust the settings of the brush:
- Click on the arrow to the right of the brush size icon in the Quick Selection toolbar.
- A menu will appear in which you can adjust six parameters of your brush:
- Diameter: Changes the size of the brush in pixels (same as pressing the [ or ] key). Settings range from 1–2500 pixels.
- Hardness: The harder the brush, the more precise its selections will be. Settings range from 0–100%, with 100% being the hardest brush.
- Spacing: Controls the distance between the brush marks in a stroke—in other words, how often the brush “touches” the target area in a single stroke. Settings range from 1–1000%. Generally it’s best to keep Spacing set to 100%, but higher numbers will yield finer selections.
- Angle: Specifies the angle at which the brush strikes the target area, relative to the horizontal axis. Settings range from 0° to +180° (for angles above the horizontal) and from 0° to −180° (for angles below the horizontal). The angle that you choose can make it easier to access certain parts of an image, such as corners or other tight spots.
- Roundness: Specifies the shape of the tip of the brush. A circular brush has a value of 100%, a linear brush has a value of 0%, and any setting in between makes the tip of the brush elliptical. Adjusting the roundness can be helpful when you need your brush to focus on parts of the target area that would be difficult to pinpoint with the default 100% round brush.
- Size: This setting only applies if you’re using an external input device, such as a pen or stylus wheel. If you’re not, keep it set to Off. Otherwise, choose the input device that you’re using.
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