Photoshop - Using the Color Range Selector
Photoshop provides many different selections tools with many techniques.
They each comes with their own strengths and are better suited for different types of selection tasks.
We all hear about the magic wand and the quick selection tool but the color range selector provides very special selection power of its own.
To begin, choose an image, ideally one that recommends itself to color selection.
On the top tool bar, under the select menu, choose color range.
This immediately pops out the color range dialogue box.
The dialogue box presents a smaller image that is, by default, a grey scale image.
You have a single check box option to view the image instead.
Under your preview image, Photoshop offers different preview options.
Try the quick mask option to see how helpful it can be using color selection.
There are several other selection options that are color based.
The default option for the color range selector is 'Sampled Colors' but if you click the pull down arrow with this selection you see several others.
You can choose reds, yellows, greens, blues.
You can have the color range selector use a particular color using that color difference alone to separate and select portions of your image.
You can also choose highlights, midtones, and shadows as your selection guide.
This could be very useful in images with bright light, sunlight, and in that same image the shadow that your object casts.
Using luminosity instead of color provides your selection tool with a very different selection, one that may share brightness but not colors.
With sample colors you can use the eyedropper tool to do sampling on your image.
Think about the accuracy here, instead of working from stored, saved color in the Photoshop library, you are using color directly from...
whatever your image contains.
As you see your color target highlighted, holding the shift key while choosing other parts of your target add to your current selection.
Like with any other selection, you can exit the color selector, choose the 'move' arrow at the top of your tool bar and move your selection around, see exactly what you have chosen.
In the same way you adjust your tolerance using the magic wand tool, you can adjust the size of your eye dropper to increase the area being sampled as you fine tune your selection.
Obviously, this color selection tool is best suited for selection tasks where color and highlights can be most important separating your target from the rest of the image.
The color range selector is a little different and doesn't seem to get as much 'air play' but it is a special selection tool and when color makes the difference, so will the color range selector.
They each comes with their own strengths and are better suited for different types of selection tasks.
We all hear about the magic wand and the quick selection tool but the color range selector provides very special selection power of its own.
To begin, choose an image, ideally one that recommends itself to color selection.
On the top tool bar, under the select menu, choose color range.
This immediately pops out the color range dialogue box.
The dialogue box presents a smaller image that is, by default, a grey scale image.
You have a single check box option to view the image instead.
Under your preview image, Photoshop offers different preview options.
Try the quick mask option to see how helpful it can be using color selection.
There are several other selection options that are color based.
The default option for the color range selector is 'Sampled Colors' but if you click the pull down arrow with this selection you see several others.
You can choose reds, yellows, greens, blues.
You can have the color range selector use a particular color using that color difference alone to separate and select portions of your image.
You can also choose highlights, midtones, and shadows as your selection guide.
This could be very useful in images with bright light, sunlight, and in that same image the shadow that your object casts.
Using luminosity instead of color provides your selection tool with a very different selection, one that may share brightness but not colors.
With sample colors you can use the eyedropper tool to do sampling on your image.
Think about the accuracy here, instead of working from stored, saved color in the Photoshop library, you are using color directly from...
whatever your image contains.
As you see your color target highlighted, holding the shift key while choosing other parts of your target add to your current selection.
Like with any other selection, you can exit the color selector, choose the 'move' arrow at the top of your tool bar and move your selection around, see exactly what you have chosen.
In the same way you adjust your tolerance using the magic wand tool, you can adjust the size of your eye dropper to increase the area being sampled as you fine tune your selection.
Obviously, this color selection tool is best suited for selection tasks where color and highlights can be most important separating your target from the rest of the image.
The color range selector is a little different and doesn't seem to get as much 'air play' but it is a special selection tool and when color makes the difference, so will the color range selector.