Understanding Adobe Photoshop Elements Select Menu - Photoshop tutorial on Loading A Selection, Modify, Grow, and Similar

Understanding Adobe Photoshop Elements Select Menu - Photoshop tutorial on Loading A Selection, Modify, Grow, and Similar
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Modify

Modify gives you a few options for your selection. Border allows you to create a border around the selected pixels (up to 200 pixels) so that only the pixels within that border are selected. You can copy this selection to a new layer and fill the layer with a color to make an outline of your image. Smooth works a lot like feathering. It will give the selection a softer edge so it looks better, rather than having jagged pixels. Expand lets you make your selection bigger by up to 200 pixels so that you can select the exact portion of the image. Lastly, Contract will let you make your selection smaller to define the exact portion of the image you want to select.

Grow and Similar

Grow: Grow works by selecting more pixels that match the color of your selection. For example, you’ve selected a portion of a tree. Grow will choose all of the pixels that match the color of the tree portion you’ve selected. This works best if you have an image that has a high contrast, otherwise it may select more pixels than you need.

Similar: Similar will select all of the pixels in an image that match the color of your selected pixels. Again, this works best with high contrast images so that you don’t end up selecting pixels you didn’t need.

Loading, Saving, and Deleting a Selection

Load Selection, Delete Selection, and Save Selection all work together. To load a selection, you first must save it. Here is how this works: Say you’ve just finished selecting a portion of a tree, you’ve spent tons of time selecting that tree, making sure you’ve gotten all of the pixels. Saving the selection allows you to save that exact outline to use again later. Load selection allows you to load a previously saved selection, and delete selection deletes any saved selections you no longer want or need.

This post is part of the series: Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 Menus - Photoshop Elements Made Easy

This tutorial series will explain all the menu options within Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0. From the File Menu to the Help Menu.

  1. Adobe Photoshop Elements File Menu - Including New, Open, and Duplicate
  2. Adobe Photoshop Elements File Menu - Including Save, File Info, and Organize
  3. Adobe Photoshop Elements File Menu - Including Import, Export, and Print
  4. Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 Edit Menu - Including Undo, Redo, Cut, and Copy
  5. Adobe Photoshop Elements Edit Menu - Including Selections, Brushes, and Patterns
  6. Adobe Photoshop Elements Edit Menu - Including Color Settings, Presets, and Preferences
  7. How to Rotate Your Images Using Adobe Photoshop Elements
  8. Adobe Photoshop Elements Image Menu - Including Crop, Transform, and Resize
  9. Adobe Photoshop Elements Image Menu - Details on Mode, Converting Color Profile, and Magic Extractor
  10. Adobe Photoshop Elements Enhance Menu - Including Auto Smart Fix, Auto Levels, and Auto Red Eye Fix
  11. Adobe Photoshop Elements Enhance Menu - Including Adjust Color, Unsharp Mask, and Convert to Black and White
  12. Adobe Photoshop Elements Layer Menu - Details On New, Duplicate, and Rename Layer
  13. Adobe Photoshop Elements Layer Menu - Details On Adjustment Layers, Fill Layers, and Layer Content
  14. Adobe Photoshop Elements Layer Menu - Including Type, Merge, Flatten, Arrange, and Group
  15. Adobe Photoshop Elements Select Menu - Information On Deselect, Reselect, Inverse, and Feather
  16. Adobe Photoshop Elements Select Menu - Including Modify, Grow, Similar, and Loading, Saving, and Deleting a Selection