#How to use magic wand tool photoshop how to#

Shortcodes, Actions and Filters Plugin: Error in shortcode Additional Options Up next, we'll look at some additional options for the Magic Wand and a real world example of it in action as we use it to quickly select and replace the sky in a photo! With Contiguous unchecked, any pixels anywhere in the image that fall within the Tolerance range will be selected. I'll also reset my Tolerance setting to its default value of 32: Let's see what happens when I uncheck the Contiguous option. In the case of my gradients, the pixels in the bottom gradient that should otherwise have been included in the selection were ignored because they were cut off from the area I clicked on by the pixels in the red bar which were not within the Tolerance range. Any pixels that are within the acceptable Tolerance range but are separated from the area you clicked on by pixels that fall outside the Tolerance range will not be included in the selection. With Contiguous selected, as it is by default, Photoshop will only select pixels that fall within the acceptable tone and color range determined by the Tolerance option and are side by side each other in the same area you clicked on. The reason has to do with another important option in the Options Bar - Contiguous. Why were the pixels in the lower gradient not included? The gradient below the red bar, which is identical to the gradient I was clicking on, was completely ignored, even though it obviously contained shades of gray that should have been included in the selection. Each time I clicked on the gradient above the red bar, Photoshop selected a certain range of pixels but only in the gradient I was clicking on.

ContiguousĪs we were exploring the effect the Tolerance setting has on Magic Wand selections, you may have noticed something strange. A Tolerance setting of 255 will effectively select the entire image, so you'll usually want to try a lower value. The higher the value, the wider the range of pixels that Photoshop will select. You can set the Tolerance option to any value between 0 and 255. Increasing or decreasing the Tolerance value has a big impact on which pixels in the image are selected with the Magic Wand. In Photoshop CS3, Adobe introduced the Quick Selection Tool and nested it in with the Magic Wand, so if you're using CS3 or later (I'm using Photoshop CS5 here), you'll need to click on the Quick Selection Tool in the Tools panel and keep your mouse button held down for a second or two until a fly-out menu appears.

If you're using Photoshop CS2 or earlier, you can select the Magic Wand simply by clicking on its icon in the Tools palette.

#How to use magic wand tool photoshop how to#

This tutorial is from our How to make selections in Photoshop series.ĭownload this tutorial as a print-ready PDF! How To Use The Magic Wand Tool Selecting The Magic Wand In this tutorial, we're going to look beyond the magic, discover how the wand really works, and learn to recognize the situations that this ancient but still extremely useful selection tool was designed for. Many people tend to get frustrated with the Magic Wand (giving it the unfortunate nickname 'tragic wand') because it can sometimes seem like it's impossible to control which pixels the tool selects.

Unlike other selection tools that select pixels in an image based on shapes or by detecting object edges, the Magic Wand selects pixels based on tone and color. The Magic Wand Tool, known simply as the Magic Wand, is one of the oldest selection tools in Photoshop.