The Photoshop magic wand tool is a stunningly simple yet effective feature that allows you to select areas of an image, which can then be copied, edited, cut or cropped.
Unlike the other selection tools which can require painstaking tracing around the required area of the photo or image with the mouse pointer, the magic wand tool allows specific sections of an image to be selected based on the colour properties of each pixel.
To use the magic wand tool just select it in the Photoshop toolbar using the mouse (or by pressing the W key (for “wand”) on the keyboard). The mouse pointer then changes to a magic wand (surprisingly enough) and you just click within the area of the image you want to select. After selecting you can then use the usual options on the tool bar to create a new selection, or to add or subtract from the existing selection.
There are also 4 options to control how the magic wand tool behaves.
Tolerance: Enter a number between 0 and 255 to select just how close to the colour you actually want that you are prepared to allow Photoshop to select. If you select 0 then you will only see pixels that are exactly the same colour as the one you selected. If you select 255 you are going to get the whole image selected. So, other than to satisfy yourself that the last point is in fact true, you won’t ever use a tolerance of 255. In reality the tolerance will be much closer to 0 than to 255. You will need to try a few settings until you get it right and it will probably need a different setting for each image you use it with.
Anti-aliasing: This smooths the jagged edges of a selection by softening the colour transition between edge pixels and background pixels. Anti-aliasing is useful when cutting, copying, and pasting selections to create composite images.
Contiguous: This option selects only pixels with suitable colour information that are directly connected to the original selection. Otherwise, all pixels in the entire image using the same colours are selected.
Sample All Layers: This selects colours using information from all the visible layers. Otherwise, the Magic Wand tool selects pixels based on colour information in the active layer only.
It won’t be the right selection tool for every image or project but for your high contrast, strong colour images it can save a lot of time and effort. Don’t forget that you can mix and match all the selection tools so you can use one tool to select the bulk of what you want then zoom in to see your edges then select another tool to refine the selection by adding or subtracting to the selected area.
One last point to consider when using the magic wand tool (or any of the other selection tools for that matter) is that it is sometimes much easier to select what you don’t want, particularly if there are strong colours around the area you do want. You can then use the magic wand tool to select these areas then “inverse” the selection using the drop down menu from the Select option in the menu bar at the top of your photoshop workspace. If you are well versed in your keyboard shortcuts you can simply make your selection then press Shift-Ctrl-I to invert it.
Remember to have fun and experiment with all the different features for each photoshop tool. As your skill and experience grows you’ll discover your own favourites. So don’t be afraid to try new things – the undo button and the history pallet are your friends!
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