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hi this is Rick from essential-photoshop -elements.com
in this video we're gonna see how to make a selection
using the Lasso Tool in Photoshop Elements
the Lasso Tool is a selection tool that lets you draw freehand selections
this is a good choice to use when you don't have a clearly defined
edge of the area that you wanna select the Lasso Tool shares a space in
the toolbox
with the magnetic lasso tool and the polygonal lasso tool
if you don't see the lasso tool in the toolbox
look for either the magnetic lasso tool
which looks like this or the polygonal lasso tool
which looks like this now to access the regular lasso tool
it depends on which version of Photoshop Elements you're using
so I'm using Photoshop Elements 12
right now but if you're using a version of Photoshop Elements
earlier than version eleven and
I'll bring up Photoshop Elements version 10 here we are inside of version 10
and if you don't see the lasso tool but see that Magnetic Lasso Tool
or the polygonal lasso tool you can just click on
whatever tool you see and hold down your mouse
and this fly-out window will appear that shows all three of the different lasso
tools
and then you can just slide your mouse over on top of the
regular lasso tool release the mouse and
the Lasso Tool will become the active tool so let's go back to
version 12 of elements it works a little differently we don't have that flyout
menu so
if you see the magnetic lasso tool
or as we see in this case the polygonal lasso tool
whatever you see there just first click on it to make sure that it's the
active tool
and then go down to the lower left of
your window and that's where the Tool options panel is
and this is it right here if you don't see the options panel down there
maybe you'll see nothing so it would look like this
or you might see the photo bin which looks like that
because they all share that same space
well then just click on the tool options right down here
to open the two options panel and then
you'll see all three of the lasso tools and just click on
the regular lasso tool and that will make it the active tool
I'm going to use the lasso tool to select one of these grapes
before we do that I wanna show you some other ways that the Lasso Tool Works
notice when I click and drag with the Lasso Tool
it leaves a line behind it which indicates the area
I dragged over and notice that the line comes right out at the little part
of the Lasso Tool
icon that hangs down there's an alternative icon that
I like to use instead that seems more precise to me
you can change to that icon by turning on CAPS LOCK
on your keyboard when I do that the cursor change to a crosshair
and the dot right in the middle is what you
move over the area that you want to be the edge of your selection
so now when I click and drag you can see that my line
originates from the center of that icon
so as you kinda saw there the lasso tool
allows you to draw freehand selections to close the selection with the lasso tool
you can go close to where you started your selection
and then let go of the mouse button and elements will connect the point where
you let go of the mouse
to the point where you started the selection So I'll
undo that and let's say I wanna select this grape right here
so I'll try stay as close to the edge as I can
and let's say when I get over here
my finger slips off of the mouse accidentally
and it closes my selection and you might think that your selection is ruined and you
have to start over
but with the any of the selection tools you can hold down the shift key
and add to your selection so instead of starting over with my selection of this
grape
I can just press down the shift key and I'll do that now
and notice that a little plus sign appears next to my cursor
indicating then I'm in add to mode
and when I like all the shift key the little plus sign goes away
and when you add to your selection always start with your cursor somewhere
inside of your selection notice when I place my cursor inside the selected area
it changes to an arrowhead with the dotted line rectangle next to it
that lets me know that I'm on the inside of the selected area so I'll placed my
cursor inside the selection
and fairly close to where I left off
and I'll press down the shift key my cursor changes to the lasso tool with a
plus sign next to it
now I'm in a press down my mouse button and as soon as I pressed on my mouse
I can let go of the shift key which I just did
and notice that the plus sign remains indicating that I'm still in
add to selection mode so you don't have to continue holding down
the shift key so now I'll start moving towards where I left off
and I'm gonna overlap the end of my selection
a little bit before the end of it and then
continue selecting the grape the best I can
when I get close to my original starting point since I'm
adding to the selection I'll trace over a little of my beginning line
just enough to get inside the selected area
like that and then let go of the mouse
and the new selection is added to the original selection
to give us a complete selection of the entire grape
it's really hard if not totally impossible to accurately follow
a line using your mouse that's one reason people use
a graphics tablet and pen instead of a mouse but remember your selection
doesn't have to be perfect
because as we already saw you can add to your selection
so if I see an area like down here
where I'm inside the edges the grape I can hold on
the shift key and go over a little of
that end point and then I can just trace along the edge to add that part on
and let go and that adds that to my selection
there's also a way to subtract from your selection if you accidentally selected
an area that you don't want like I did over here you can see this little
piece stickin' out here
well I don't want that to be part my selection to subtract or take away part
of your selection what lasso tool
you can press down the option key on a Mac or the Alt key on a PC
watch my cursor when I press and hold down the option key
a small minus sign appears next to my cursor
indicating I'm in subtract from mode
and when you wanna take away from your selection
I always recommend that you start in area your photo that is not currently
selected
so in this example I'm gonna start out here
I'm outside of my selected area I'll press down the option key
or Alt key and the minus sign appears
and as soon as I press on my mouse button which I'll do now
I can release the option or alt key which I'll do
and the Lasso Tool will stay in subtract mode
as indicated by the minus sign now I'll start dragging towards the area that I
wanna remove
and I'll start a little before the area
and just follow the edge of the grape and go
a little beyond the bad area
and then move away from my selection
and as soon as I get out here I can let go
and it will remove that part in the selection
so basically with the Lasso Tool
you do the best you can with your original selection attempt but remember
you can always go back in
and add on or subtract from your selection to clean it up and
make good make it perfect if you wanna spend enough time
so I hope you found this video on how to use the lasso tool
helpful until next time this is Rick saying take care