Advanced Selections

Contents Intro to Channel Selections Making a Channel Selection Helps and Hints Using Extract Channels Palette Explained 2 3 5 6 8

Channels represent a few different things. First and foremost they represent the colors that are in your image. These are typically represented by red, green and blue channels (RGB) or by cyan, magenta, yellow, and black channels (CMYK). All images have a composite channel as well. This is the channel youre viewing when you are working on your image. Channels can also be used to save selections. Try this to see how it works:

1. Open any image. Make a simple selection with your marquee

tool.

2. Open the Channels palette and click the new channel icon at
the bottom of the palette.

3. Click on the new channel that was made (probably named

Alpha 1). Note that where the selection was is solid white, and everything else is black. This is how the Channels palette saves selections. It makes a channel where white is the selected area, and black represents the areas that are not part of the selection.

4. Deselect (com-D; PC cntl-D) so there is no selection. Click Ex. 1-2. Duplicate the channel with the most contrast
on the channel that says RGB or CMYK. You should see the full color image again. Theres no selection on. To reload the selection you just made, hold down the command key (PC: control) and click on the new channel at the bottom of the channels palette. Your selection reappears.

Intro to Channel Selections

The Channel Advantage

As you go through this tutorial, youll likely be comparing it in your mind to other ways of selecting things. The advantages to using channels are abundant. First, you can use a channel the same way you use quickmask. The difference is that when youre viewing a channel as a quickmask, you can actually hit save to save your document and your channel along with it. If youre in the middle of a complex selection in quickmask mode there is no way to save your work.

Ex. 3. Duplicate the channel with the most contrast

Second, if you start out with a color channel as your saved selection can do anything to a channel (or a Layer Mask if you choose to follow Help/Hint #2) that you can do to a Grayscale image. This can give you a great head start. Third, using an existing color channel as a starting place for a selection allows you to follow the edges of the photographic information instead of clipping along an image visually and hoping its good enough.

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Now that you understand how channels represent selections, the rest of this kit will provide you with methods of using black and white channels to make selections.

1. Open a photo from your hard drive. Go to Hard Drive >

Applications > Adobe Photoshop CS > Samples > Palm Tree (CMYK).tif. (PC: Go to My Computer > C Drive > Program files > Adobe > Photoshop CS > Samples > Palm Tree (CMYK).tif)

2. Look at each of the RGB or CMYK channels individually.

Choose the one with the greatest black and white contrast between the object you need to select and the background. Duplicate this channel by dragging it to the new channel icon at the bottom of the Channels palette. In this case it is obviously the Yellow channel.

3. The object to be selected needs to end up white in the

channel and the background needs to end up black. If the object is darker than the background, (as it is in our example) you will need to invert the black and white. Go to Image>Adjustments>Invert (com-I; PC cntl-I).

4. Choose the Burn tool in the Tools palette (nested under the
Dodge tool). Choose a relatively large, soft brush. In the Options bar, choose Shadows for the Range and change the Exposure to 20%. Now darken the outside of the object with the Burn tool. Go around the edges once or twice. Dont worry about getting a solid black outline yet.

Making a Channel Selection

5. Choose the Dodge tool. Use the same brush. In the Options
bar, choose Highlights for the Range and change the Exposure to 20%. Now lighten the inside of the object with the Dodge tool.

Ex. 2. Duplicate the channel with the most contrast

6. Go back and forth between dodging the inside and burning

the outside until you have the black and white edges of a silhouette. Try to keep the edge of the silhouette soft. Avoid hard-edged transitions. The key is to keep the brush the right size and avoid going directly over the edge with the center of the brush.

Ex. 3-6. Invert if necessary, then begin to dodge and burn.

7. There will be areas that were missed by the dodging and

burning. These you will paint over with the Brush tool and 100% black or white. Paint the inside of the silhouette white. Paint the outside black. Avoid touching the edges of the silhouette with the paintbrush. If any touch up is necessary, use a small brush to clean up (i.e. areas where the Dodge and Burn tools didnt make the right edge). You only need to Dodge and Burn the edges of the silhouette. Once you have a nice black area around the outside, paint the rest of the background black. Do the same with white on the inside of the image.

8. Go back to your composite RGB or CMYK channel (com-~;

PC cntl-~). Then make a selection out of the new channel you just made by command-clicking the channel in the channels palette (PC cntl-click). Youre ready to make a mask from the selection, or drag it to another image!

Ex. 7. Clean up until all that is C left is a silhouette on black.

Making a Channel Selection

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Hints and Helps with Making Selections from Existing Channels When creating a channel specifically for making a selection, often times you may lose yourself in the process and wonder just how good your selection is going to be. Here are a couple of tips for checking your work.

Help/Hint #1 If you want to see how your channel is matching up to the original photo, click the Show icon (eyeball) in front of your composite channel. This makes the Alpha channel youre working on show up as a red overlay on top of your image. You can actually work this way, or turn the eyeball off again and continue on in black and white.

Help/Hint #2 If you want to work on the image itself (cutting it out as you Dodge and Burn) try this:

1. Command-click (PC: cntl-click) on the channel youve been

using for your selection.

2. Click on the composite channel and go back to your Layers

palette. If your image is on the Background layer, youll need to double click the layer in the Layers palette and click OK. Then click the New Mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette. This makes a mask out of your selection.

Help/Hint 1. View your channel like Quickmask Mode.

Lasso Tool

3. Now you can Dodge on top of the image to make more of it

appear, and Burn around the image to make the background disappear. This allows you to work visually.

Help/Hint 2. Dodge and Burn on a Layer Mask to see your results live

1. Open a photo from your hard drive. Go to Hard Drive >

Applications > Adobe Photoshop CS > Samples > Eagle.psd. (PC: Go to My Computer > C Drive > Program files > Adobe > Photoshop CS > Samples > Eagle.psd). Duplicate the

layer that has the object(s) to be extracted. 2. Go to Filter>Extract or type com-opt-X (PC cntl-alt-X). 3. Use the Highlighter tool to determine where the edges of the selection need to be. Then use the Paint Bucket tool and click on the inside of the selection. 4. Click Preview to see how your first round went. If you need to adjust your edges turn the Preview settings back to the defaults (at right). 5. Use the Eraser and the Highlighter to adjust the green highlight. The rule here is that you want a thin line where the edge is sharp and in focus, and a fatter line where the edge blurs into the background. Frizzy hair might be mostly green highlight, while the sharp line of someones skin has a thin highlight. 6. Once youve adjusted your highlight, change your settings back to the preview settings shown at right. Repeat these steps until your preview shows you what you want to see. Then Click OK.

Ex. 1. Open an image. We used one that comes with Photoshop.

Using Extract

Ex. 3-5. A tolerance of 0 will select only the exact color you click on

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You wont see any difference at first, because you duplicated the layer and the two on top of each other dont look any different. 7. Command-click (PC cntl-click) on the highlighted layer in the Layers palette. 8. Go to the original layer and click the New Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. 9. Delete the duplicate layer that does not have a layer mask.

Ex. 7-8. Use the extracted image as a selection and make a mask on the original.

Using Extract

Ex. 9. Voile! Voil

A. Click to show or hide a channel B. The top channel of most les is the composite
channel. Press ~ to show the composite behind an alpha channel without activating the composite B C

C. Color Channel. Shift-click to activate/deactivate. RGB and CMYK les are made up of channels representing each individual color

D. A layer mask is represented as a channel also E. An alpha channel is a saved selection. Use the
key command listed on the channel to view it. Add option (PC: alt) to make it a selection. Double-click for Channel options D A E

F F. Load Channel as selection G. Save Selection as Channel. Option-click (PC:

alt-click) to bring up options

H. Create New Channel. Command-click (PC:

cntl-click) to create a Spot Color channel

I.

Trash

Channels Palette Explained