Although Photoshop provides many ways to create a selection, this tool is certainly one of the most affordable, especially for beginners. This article provides material on how to use the lasso in Photoshop. Also consider all the available elements of this group.
The lasso tools in Photoshop allow you to choose arbitrary shapes, whether it be “random and random”, angular or non-linear, but tracked and so on. Like most brushes, the lasso group has a number of options, settings, and keyboard shortcuts that you can use.
Standard tool
This lasso is completely dependent on the movements of the hand (mouse, trackpad or pen). As a result, you never get the perfect silhouette when handling things. That is why many photographers recommend using it exclusively for “random and random selection” (clouds, spots, spills, etc.). How to use the lasso in Photoshop will be discussed below.
Polygon tool
The Lasso tool is great for capturing geometric shapes with straight lines and corners. This is probably the fastest tool for choosing an arbitrary shape (provided that the subject consists of straight lines).
Magnetic lasso in Photoshop
This tool is great for tracing objects with clear boundaries. The advantage of the device is that with it you can change the frequency, width and contrast. It is these parameters that allow you to control the occurrence of magnetic points. They show how far you can deviate with the tool and still fit the border, and how well Photoshop sees the subject.
Using
Tips & Tricks:
- Holding the alt / option key while drawing with the standard tool will turn it into a polygonal lasso, and vice versa.
- By pressing Shift while drawing, you can add additional values.
- Holding down the selection key will delete the last point.
How to use lasso in Photoshop? It doesn't matter which tool was chosen. When using polygonal or magnetic, it is not necessary to delete the entire selected fragment if an error was made. You can simply press the Backspace (Win) / Delete (Mac) key on your keyboard to undo the last point.
You need to set the anti-aliasing checkbox if you need to soften the uneven edges of the selected area. This is the same as taking a piece of sandpaper before roughing.
If a lot of time is spent on working with a choice, then the photographer needs to learn not only how to use the lasso in Photoshop, but also to study the settings for Pen and Edge Refinement. Another thing that is important to know: the choices will be as good as how accurately a person can draw the space around the element. If the user is faced with a problem, then it may be worth buying a tablet for digital drawing. In addition, if you need to make a professional-quality drawing based on forms, then you need to undergo training in Photoshop. However, the lasso toolkit will take care of most of the needs of free form selection for the average user.
Isolation using such a lasso tool
This brush is useful in developing selected areas with arbitrary and irregular border shapes. But how to cut out the lasso in Photoshop?
First you need to select a tool, set it to shade and, of course, smoothing on the taskbar, which is located on top.
To use the addition of a fragment, subtraction or intersection with an existing selected area, you need to click the corresponding button at the top. After the area is selected, you must right-click and select “Copy to new layer” or “Cut to new layer”, depending on the need.
Parameters
First you need to click and hold the mouse button until an arbitrary irregular shape is highlighted.
To switch between all straight segments and curved, you need to click at the start and end points. At the same time, hold down the Alt key (Windows) or Option (Mac OS). To erase the last points, press and hold the Delete key. To close the border of the selected area, you need to release the mouse button without pressing Alt or Option.
Additional tip: you can click on the “Refine Edge” options panel to further adjust the selection border.
Straight Lasso
This tool is useful when creating any selected areas with straight and carbon edges. First of all, you need to select the "Straight Lasso" and specify the parameters. The last step will determine the mode of operation.
Selection Options
With a mouse click, you need to set the origin of the snap. After you need to perform one or several of the following items.
To draw any fragment with straight or carbon borders, move the mouse to the place where the end of the first segment should be, and press the button. After you need to continue the selection with clicks.
In order to draw a straight line at an angle of 45 ° to the previous line, you need to hold the Shift button while moving to the end point of the subsequent sector. To display a free configuration, hold down the Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) key before moving.
At the end of the drawing, all keys are released without exception. In order to delete all the last drawn segments, you can click Delete.
Close the border of the selected area in the following way:
- Move the Rectilinear Lasso tool cursor to the initial point (the final circle appears above the pointer) and click the mouse button.
- If the cursor is not over the start, then you can left-click while holding down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS).
- Optional tip: by clicking the "Refine Edge" option, you can further adjust any selection border.
The next way to create a path
When using the Magnetic Lasso tool, the line is snapped to the edges of the specified image area. It is worth noting that this device is not available for photos with 32 bits in line.
Note: the Magnetic Lasso tool in particular can be useful for quickly highlighting objects with hard edges from the background with significant contrast.
To begin with, you should choose the necessary brush. To do this, right-click on the lasso tool.
Photoshop selection options
First, set any of the following values:
- Width. To specify this selection parameter, you need to enter a value in pixels in the required field. The Magnetic Lasso tool will only find sides within a specific distance from the cursor. Note: in order to change the lasso pointer so that it shows the width, you must press the Caps Lock button. The cursor can only be changed if the tool is selected but not used. You need to press the left square bracket (]) to increase the edge width by 1 pixel and the left ([) to decrease by 1 value.
- Contrast. To set the necessary sensitivity of the lasso to all edges of the image, a value from 1 to 100% is indicated for this parameter. With a high indicator, only those edges are displayed that clearly and without interference stand out against the monophonic background of the environment, with a low indicator, everything is shown in less contrast.
- Frequency. To specify the parameter with which the lasso will establish additional and basic anchor points, it is necessary to select a value from 0 to 100. With a higher indicator, the limits of the assigned area will be established more rapidly. Note: in an image with well-defined edges, you can try to set high width and contrast settings. The next step is to carelessly draw the border of the designated area. In a low contrast image, it is possible to determine a low value for width and contrast. And then it will be necessary to draw the boundary of the selection even more accurately and consciously.
Pen pressure
When working with a graphics tablet, you should also define this option. If it is matched, the latitude of the edge decreases with increasing pen pressure. By clicking on the image, you can define the first anchor point. Directly, it fixes the boundary of the selected zone in a particular area.
You need to release the mouse button or hold it, and then move the cursor along the desired area. The outermost sector of the border of the designated place remains active.
When moving the cursor, it will be defined on the edge of the image located within the detection width. Periodically, the mechanism adds anchor points to the limits of the assigned sphere in order to strengthen the previous parts. That's the whole answer to the question, why do I need a lasso.