Essential Masking Techniques #4 - Magic Wand Tool

This is part 4 of a series of 10 masking techniques that I will be explaining. The magic wand tool, the most interesting of the bunch. While flexible, this one is not my absolute favorite to work with. For the best results with this tool you should be constantly tweaking the settings as you make your selection. Because I feel this tool is a little trickier, I will be including my very own, very first video tutorial. Let me know what you think and where I can improve! Note that you will learn this tool best by utilizing both the written and video tutorials that I provide here.

Good for: Hair.  natural elements. Selecting abstractly for creative masking. Also for anything with high contrast. Selecting specific common pixel colors quickly.

Settings

• Selection:
• new selection (default)
• add to selection (springloaded key: Shift)
• subtract from selection (springloaded key: Alt)
• intersect selection (springloaded key: Shift+Alt)
• Sample Size:  (3by3, 5by5, 11by11, 31by31, 51by51, 101by101) The numbers represent the area of pixels you will be selecting each time you click the magic wand tool. You decide on which depending on the variety of pixel shades you want to be affected by the magic want tool.
• Tolerance: The pixel you click determines the base color. The number set here will determine the number of levels lighter / darker considered in the selection. 
• Ex: the default tolerance of 32 means that the Magic Wand will select 16 levels lighter and 16 levels darker
• Anti-alias: smooths edges
• Contiguous: This means it will select pixels that have common borders touching each other only
• Sample All Layers: When this is checked it will treat all your layers as if they were on one.

Technique

1. Once you finish deciding what you want to select, click in the area to see what the default settings select. Then you begin adjusting your setting to make sure that you wont select undesired areas. Lower the tolerance, raise the sample size, etc. Sometimes this will take a bit of guess and check.
2. The next step is to add to the selection that you started. Hold down the SHIFT key to use the 'add to selection' setting then click again on a different shade of pixel than the first, but make sure its close. Here you will see your selection starting to form. If necessary raise or lower the tolerance/sample size as necessary.
3. To subtract selection from undesired areas hold down the ALT key to use the 'subtract from selection' setting. Generally keep a low tolerance and high sample setting to clean up any areas i do not want to select.
4. If you see little foreign pixels scattered in a certain area you can remove them using the rectangle or ellipse selection tools (also using the ALT key to subtract from selection). In a future blog post I will show you how you can use selection tools together.
5. Refine your edge

Tips

• Between every click of the wand you should be adjusting your settings to achieve the best results. The best way to understand this is to open up Photoshop and play with it!
• Start with large areas and then move to smaller/tighter areas with more constricting settings.
• Using the contiguous setting will really help in certain situations. Do you want to select pixels in a confined area or across the whole image?
• Always zoom in to different areas of the image to make sure you have a quality mask.
• Always explore the options you have in refine edge. you will usually find areas that you can improve.

Sample

So there you have it. If I was not clear enough or I missed something let me know in the comments below!

Do you have any questions? comments? tips? I would be happy to hear from you! Get in touch through michaeljphotography.ca contact form. I would appreciate your follow @Jonssononline

Did you learn from my post?