First Things First

Before discussing the three categories, you need to learn about where the selection tools are located.

Tools

Tools is located on the left side of your screen.

You'll find the selection tools at four locations:

	Tools	Family Members
1	Marquee Tool Family	Rectangular & Elliptical
2	Lasso Tool Family	Lasso, Magnetic Lasso, & Polygonal Lasso
3	Magic Wand Tool	No Siblings
4	Selection Brush Tool Family	Quick Selection & Selection Brush

Select a Tool from a Tool Family

To select a member of a selection tool family, do the following:

Windows

• Right click the icon of the selection tool family, and select the desired tool from the menu.

Mac

• Right click the icon of the selection tool family, and select the desired tool from the menu.

If your mouse doesn't have a right-click button, press and hold Ctrl (not Command), click the icon of the selection tool family, and select the desired tool from the menu.

Three Categories

The selection tools can be divided into three categories:

• Truly Magical

• Somewhat Magical

• Mechanical

We'll look at the selection tools in each category.

1 - Truly Magical Category

In version 6.0, Adobe added the Quick Selection tool.

This tool is in the Truly Magical category.

In most situations, this is the selection tool to use.

Look at row #4 below.

In Tools on the left side of your screen, the Quick Selection tool is in the Selection Brush tool family.

Its sibling is the Selection Brush tool (to be described).

Look at the Truly Magical column below.

There's only one truly-magical selection tool, the Quick Selection tool.

	Tools	Truly Magical	Somewhat Magical	Mechanical
1	Marquee Tool Family			Rectangular Marquee	Elliptical Marquee
2	Lasso Tool Family		Magnetic Lasso	Lasso	Polygonal Lasso
3	Magic Wand Tool		Magic Wand
4	Selection Brush Tool Family	Quick Selection		Selection Brush

2 - Somewhat Magical Selection Tools

When using one of the somewhat-magical selection tools, Photoshop Elements does most of the work, with some help from you.

The area to be selected must have a tone or color different from the rest of the photograph.

For example, the tones and colors of the monument below are different from the rest of the photograph.

Therefore, you can use a somewhat-magical selection tool to select the monument.

Look at the Somewhat Magical column below.

There's the Magnetic Lasso tool, and the Magic Wand tool.

	Tools	Truly Magical	Somewhat Magical	Mechanical
1	Marquee Tool Family			Rectangular Marquee	Elliptical Marquee
2	Lasso Tool Family		Magnetic Lasso	Lasso	Polygonal Lasso
3	Magic Wand Tool		Magic Wand
4	Selection Brush Tool Family	Quick Selection		Selection Brush

3 - Mechanical Selection Tools

If there's little tonal or color difference between the area to be selected—and the rest of the photograph—use a mechanical selection tool.

They're mechanical because you do the drawing.

For example, let's say you need to select the areas under the eyes in the portrait below.

There's little difference in tone or color in these areas.

Therefore, you'll probably need to use a mechanical selection tool.

In the chart below, you can see the five mechanical selection tools.

	Tools	Truly Magical	Somewhat Magical	Mechanical
1	Marquee Tool Family			Rectangular Marquee	Elliptical Marquee
2	Lasso Tool Family		Magnetic Lasso	Lasso	Polygonal Lasso
3	Magic Wand Tool		Magic Wand
4	Selection Brush Tool Family	Quick Selection		Selection Brush

Next, we'll look at five selection-tool tips.

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