Contents
An Introduction to the Magic Wand Tool
How to Use Photoshop’s Magic Wand Tool
How to Refine Selections with the Magic Wand Tool
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How to Use Photoshop’s Magic Wand Tool
Using Photoshop’s Magic Wand tool involves four main steps:
- Adjusting the Magic Wand tool’s settings
- Making the selection
- Completing the selection
- Refining the selection
The steps in the following example show how to select the sky in a typical landscape photo—one of the most common uses of the Magic Wand tool.
1. Adjust the Magic Wand Tool’s Settings
The first step in using the Magic Wand tool is to choose the settings that will yield the results you’re aiming for in your selection. There are four main settings in the Magic Wand’s toolbar: Tolerance, Anti-alias, Contiguous, and Sample All Layers.
Tolerance
The Tolerance setting lets you specify how “tolerant,” or forgiving, the selection should be in including pixels whose color does not precisely match the color of the pixel you click on to make your selection. Settings range from 0–255, with 0 being the least tolerant and 255 being the most tolerant. A 0 setting selects only pixels that match the original pixel’s color exactly. A 255 setting usually selects nearly every pixel in the image. For example, if you’re aiming to select the entire sky in the sample image, you might start off by choosing a low Tolerance setting (25 or so), since the sky contains mostly blue pixels. But since the blues in the sky do differ somewhat (from darker blue at the top of the image to almost white near the horizon), your selection likely won’t be perfect on the first click, regardless of the Tolerance setting you choose.
Anti-Alias
Checking the Anti-alias box in the Magic Wand’s toolbar helps smooth out the “edge transition” of your selection. Edge transition refers to the edge along which the selection meets the rest of the image. In the sample image, selecting Anti-alias would be especially helpful in smoothing the transition between the blue sky pixels in the selection and the jagged treetops along the mountain ridge in the top left portion of the image. Unless you want to make a very harsh precise selection—jagged edges and all—you should check the Anti-alias box before making your selection with the Magic Wand.
Contiguous
The Contiguous setting lets you specify whether to include only neighboring pixels in the image with hues similar to that of the pixel you click on to make the selection. If you don’t check Contiguous, the Magic Wand will select all of the pixels throughout the entire image whose hues match or approximate the color of the original pixel you click on. For instance, in the sample image, if you don’t check the Contiguous checkbox, some of the blues in the reflection on the water would also end up in your selection. Since you want to select only pixels in the sky—not in the water—you should check Contiguous.
Sample All Layers
If you’re working on an image with multiple layers and you’d like the Magic Wand tool to select pixels in all of the layers—as opposed to just pixels in the active layer—check the Sample All Layers box. If you’re working with an image with just one layer, such as the sample image, leave the box unchecked.
2. Make the Selection
Making a selection with the Magic Wand is as simple as clicking once in the area that you’d like to select. Remember that the color of pixel you click on determines which neighboring pixels the Magic Wand will select, so click in an area whose pixels contain an “average” of the colors in the area that you’d like to select. For instance, in the sample image, rather than click on an area that contains relatively dark blue pixels (near the top left and top right corners) or almost white pixels (near the horizon), you’d get better results by clicking on an area with light blue pixels near the middle of the sky.
Once you’ve chosen an area in which to click, simply click and release the mouse button. Photoshop will complete the entire selection automatically—a line of “marching ants” will surround the selection. Don’t worry if the selection doesn’t look perfect after the first click—you’ll learn how to fine-tune it in the next few steps.
3. Complete the Selection
When you make a selection with the Magic Wand, you’ll often need to add or subtract from the selection to make it fill the specific area that you intended to select. For instance, in the sample image, when you click on the middle of the sky with the Magic Wand’s tolerance set to 25, you get a selection that leaves out three parts of the sky—the two top corners and the region nearest to the horizon (parts labeled 1, 2, and 3 in the image included here). Photoshop fails to include these areas in the Magic Wand’s selection because the pixels they contain differ substantially in color from the pixel you clicked on to make the selection. There are two ways to solve this problem: you can either adjust the tolerance setting or modify the selection manually.
Adjust the Tolerance Setting
If your first selection leaves out a substantial part of the image that you intended to select, or includes large areas you did not intend to select, you can increase or decrease the tolerance setting and try your selection again. To do so, with the Magic Wand and your first selection still active, click again anywhere within the selection. The original selection will vanish.
Enter a new tolerance setting in the Magic Wand’s toolbar and click again in the same spot in which you clicked to make the original selection. If you increased the tolerance setting, you should now see more of the area included in the selection; if you decreased the tolerance setting, you should now see less. You can repeat this process until you come upon a tolerance setting that produces just the right results.
Add to or Subtract from the Selection Manually
Though adjusting the tolerance setting usually works, it’s slower and more tedious than completing the selection manually.
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To add to a selection manually: Hold down the Shift key and click once in each region that you’d like to add to the selection. When you press Shift, you’ll see the Magic Wand cursor change slightly—it will now include a plus sign. Every time you click while continuing to hold down the Shift key, the region that you click on will automatically be added to the original selection, which will expand to accommodate the additional pixels you’ve selected. For instance, in the sample image, you’d press and hold Shift, then click once in each numbered region. The completed selection would then include the original selection and the three missing pieces. Should any portion of the areas that you’d like to select still fail to be included, press and hold Shift and click on those regions again. Eventually they’ll all be added to the original selection. (You can also add to a selection by clicking on the Add to Selection icon in the Magic Wand’s toolbar, but using the Shift key is faster.)
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To subtract from a selection manually: Hold down the Alt key (the Option key on a Mac) and click once in each region that you’d like to subtract from the selection. When you press Alt, you’ll see the Magic Wand cursor change slightly—it will now include a minus sign. Next, click on an area outside of the original selection, but near the portion of the selection that you’d like to remove. Doing so will tell Photoshop which type (color) pixels you’d prefer not to include in the final selection. For instance, in the sample image shown here, in which the marching ants extend beyond the sky and into the mountains, you’d press Alt and click on the dark pixels just outside of the selection. The resulting selection would still include the entire sky, but none of the mountains. If any portion of the areas that you’d like to remove remain in the selection, press Alt (or Option) and click just outside the selection in those areas. Repeat this process until you have just the right selection. (You can also subtract from a selection by clicking on the Subtract from Selection icon in the Magic Wand’s toolbar, but using the Alt (or Option) key is faster.)
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