Adobe Photoshop Elements Select Menu - Information On Deselect, Reselect, Inverse, and Feather

All: Select all will select the entire photo (or layer) that you are working on. This works well if you want to copy the contents to a new layer, or a new document.

Deselect: This will rid you of the “marching ants” around whatever part of the photo you’ve selected. This is usually used once you’ve copied the contents and pasted to a new layer and no longer need to have the contents of your image selected.

Reselect: Reselecting is used when you’ve selected something, deselected it, and then realized you still need that portion of your image selected. This will select exactly what you had previously, rather than making you try to select the exact portion of your image again.

Inverse: This tool is probably one of the most under-estimated within the batch. I love this tool. Inverse allows you to select a part of an image, go to inverse, and Photoshop Elements will select the exact opposite of what you’ve just selected. I use this all the time when I want to put a portion of my photo on a new background. Rather than selecting every pixel of the background to delete it, I select an easier portion of the image, go to inverse, and it will select the background for me!

All Layers: If you’re working with a multi-layer document, this is a great tool to have. If you draw a marquis around a layer, you’re only selecting that layer, nothing under it. Select all layers allows you to select every layer and work with them as a whole.

Deselect Layers: Does the same as deselect, but will deselect all layers rather than just the layer you are working on.

Similar Layers: This select option allows you to select layers of the same type such as all text layers, or all adjustment layers.

Feather: Feather is a great way to make your photo look more realistic if you change its background. It will blur the pixels around the selection (you can choose how many pixels) and create the illusion that the photo was on that background all along, rather than making it look like you took a portion of a photo and pasted into a new background.

Refine Edge: Refine edge gives you three options with sliders to control the density of the change. Smooth will remove the jagged edges along a selection. Feather works the same as feather above, blurring the edges to make the selection look more realistic. Contract/Expand allows you to increase or decrease the amount of selected pixels. You can choose to view the image as you would see it, or view the selection with an overlay color so that you can view the selection more in depth.