Chapter nine. Smarter Selections

PAINTING IN PHOTOSHOP IS VERY STRAIGHTFORWARD. If you've got the Brush tool in hand, you just start painting. But for more exacting corrections or enhancements on specific areas of a Photoshop document, you need to select an area. The time-honored way to select an area is to drag the lasso tool around the area you want to selectthat method goes all the way back to MacPaint in 1984but Photoshop provides many alternatives that can be faster in various situations.

When using any of the selection tips in this chapter with a layered document, remember to first select the correct layer in the Layers palette.