How to use the Quick Selection tool in Photoshop to easily remove backgrounds and more

You can use the Quick Selection tool in Photoshop to easily select and edit specific parts of a photo.

Once you've made your selection, you can delete or edit that section without affecting the rest of the photo.

Anything you've selected with the Quick Selection tool will be surrounded with a black-and-white dotted line.

When you're working on an image in Photoshop, there are times when you'll only want to edit a specific part of the picture — maybe someone's face, or just the background. If this is the case, then the Quick Selection tool is your friend.

Like other selection tools, Quick Selection lets you pick a section of the picture to work on. But unlike other tools that make you pick out the section manually, the Quick Selection tool uses colors to better select only what you want.

Here's how Quick Selection works, and how to use it.

How to use quick selection tool in Photoshop

The Quick Selection tool looks at the colors in the picture you're editing, and uses them to figure out where one object ends and another begins.

As such, the Quick Selection tool works best on pictures with many different colors and contrasts. It's great for selecting backgrounds, isolated objects, and other things that are clearly separate from everything around them.

1. Open a photo in Photoshop. Click the Quick Selection tool in the toolbar on the left side of the screen. It's the fourth option from the top, and looks like a paint brush making a dotted line. If you instead see a magic wand icon, right-click it and then select "Quick Selection Tool."

Choose the Quick Selection Tool from the fourth cubby. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

2. At the top of the screen, make sure that the "Add to selection" mode is selected — it's the same brush-and-dotted-line icon, but with a plus sign above it. This option means that every time you click the photo using the Quick Selection tool, you add your selection instead of starting over.

The "Add to selection" mode will expand the selection each time you use the tool. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

3. Also at the top of the screen, set the size of the selection brush. You'll want to make the brush smaller than the region or object you're trying to select, because if it's too large, it'll select parts you don't want too.

Select a size for the tool that's large enough to simplify selections, but not so big that it selects unwanted parts of the photo. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

4. Click the part of the photo you want to select. To expand your selection, click another part, or click and drag your mouse around, as if you were painting with a brush. You can see the selection expand as you move the mouse.

As you click and drag the Quick Selection tool, you'll see the dotted line grow to encompass your selections — here, we've selected the entire sky. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

5. If you've accidentally selected parts of the image that you don't want, now it's time to remove them. At the top of the screen, select the "Subtract from selection" mode — the same brush-and-dotted-line icon, but with a minus sign. You may also want to make the brush a bit smaller, since this will call for more precise and delicate brushwork.

6. Find a part of the photo that includes an unwanted selection. Click the selection, being careful to stay in the region you want to exclude from the selection. For example, if you're trying to select the sky above a building, keep the tool below the roofline. Click and drag carefully, watching the selection change.

7. Vary between the "Add" and "Subtract" selection modes, also customizing the tool size, until you've selected just the region you want. This may take a few tries, especially if the image doesn't have a lot of contrasting colors.

8. If you don't want the selection anymore, right-click inside of it and click "Deselect."

Once you've made your selection, you can draw or erase inside of that selection, without having to worry about your work spilling outside onto the rest of the picture. Any filters you add will only affect the selected portion. Same goes for tools like Spot Healing, Patch, Paint Bucket, and more.

If you've still got Quick Selection active, you can right click your selected section to find a few more options. One of these is "Select Inverse" — pick this, and your selection will invert so everything except for what you highlighted will be selected.

How to use the Quick Selection tool like a pro with layers

In Photoshop, layers are how you sort what's on top of what — think of them like sheets of paper, laid on top of each other. If you're planning on doing any advanced work in Photoshop, you need to know how to use them.

If you're going to use the Quick Selection tool, but you're not sure if the final product is going to look good, consider making a copy of all your current layers first. This is what professional graphic artists and photographers do, and is the best way to protect your work.

Making a layer copy preserves an unedited version of the image, which you can use for reference. You can even blend the two versions of the image if desired. To work with a layer:

1. Go to the Layers palette on the right side of the screen and drag your current layer(s) to the "Create a New Layer" button (which is shaped either like a plus sign or sticky note) at the bottom of the screen.

Drag the current layer to the "New Layer" button at the bottom of the window. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

2. Click the eye icon next to your original layers to hide them.

Be sure to hide the layer you're not working with. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

3. Click the new copied layer to select it, and proceed with editing.

If you want to see the old layers for reference, use the eye icons to show or hide your layers as you like.

Related coverage from Tech Reference:

How to use Updated Object Selection in Photoshop 2023, AI selections.

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How to use Object Selection, and new selection features in Photoshop 2023

In this Photoshop tutorial, I will show you the newest features in Photoshop 2023 selections. We will also look at Object Selection in a bit more depth, revealing some of the hidden options that you will find useful. Make sure to watch the video because it contains a number of tips and details that aren’t in these written steps. Also check out my new feature overview for Photoshop 2023 and Lightroom 12 aka Lightroom Classic 2023.

Choose the object selection tool, it’s under the magic wand. (If you don’t see the object selections tool, make sure you aren’t using an old workspace)

When you roll over different parts of your image, you will see that object or parts of objects will appear highlighted.

Click to make a selection

Drag on any object in your image to select it. At the top there are 2 options, the marquee or lasso options.

The ai does the rest of the work in making a selection.

Choose Select and mask to refine the selection. The object selection tool is now available in Select and Mask.

Some newer option with Object Selections are the ability to select a sky with a single click.

As you roll over your image, you have the option to select the foreground, just click to select.

Here I switched out the foreground using the initial selection to show how good it is. You can refine the selections of course, but with the updated algorithms its pretty good.

Working with Layered Images

Here is a composite with many layers.

The flower layer is currently active.

Its easy enough to select the flower because the pixels are on the current layer.

If you try to select other objects tha are on other layers, you will get an error message, because no pixels are selected.

Turn on the Stack icon in the options bar to look at the full composite.

Now you can easily select anything in the composite from any layer.

I hope you found these new additions to the Photoshop Object Selection tool useful. Watch the video for more of a walkthrough and more tips.

Thanks for checking it out

Colin

Selection Tool in Photoshop

Basics of Using Selection Tool in Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop offers a number of tools for selection, but none of them are as beginner-friendly as the Quick Selection tool. It is one of the most basic and fun tools to use if you want to select various portions of an image and make modifications. You can select one or more parts of an image to add or remove elements from the selection.

The tool was first introduced in Photoshop CS3; you don’t need 100% precision as the photo editing app automatically detects similar color tones when selecting parts of an image and stops when you close in on the edges.

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How to Use the Selection Tool in Photoshop?

The default key to choose the Quick Selection tool in Photoshop is W. You can also manually find the icon from the toolbar on the left and choose the tool.

1. Making Selections

Open any image that you want to edit in Photoshop. Take a look below at the cartoon tooth that we are using for the demonstration. We want to keep the main subject intact without making any changes, but we want to change the background to a more attractive color.

To achieve our goal, we can simply use the Quick Selection tool and drag over the subject to select everything but the background.

The tooth gets selected, and simply right-click on the selection and press Layer Via Cut. You can also press Shift + Ctrl + N to create a new layer on a different file and paste the selection.

In our case, a small portion of the background remains in the center of the image. Simply use the Quick Selection tool again and select the excess parts.

We used the Paint Bucket Tool (G) to fill in a new color in the background on a fresh layer. To create a new layer, press Ctrl + Shift + N and paste an image or fill the background like we did using the Paint Bucket Tool.

Here is an example of a custom image background with the same subject.

2. Making Finer Selections

You can fine-tune your brush size to work on the jagged edges or any extra bits that may have been selected when making your initial selection. You can edit the Size, Hardness, and Spacing to get the right tool size.

3. Adding and Subtracting from Selections

All selection tools in Photoshop can be modified to add or subtract selections from a selected image. Simply choose the Quick Selection tool and choose the Add to Selection option. Once it is activated, you can select more sections of your subject. You can also hold down the Shift key on your keyboard to achieve the same.

To Subtract from your existing selection, you can choose the Subtract from Selection option from the toolbar. You can also press the Alt key on an existing selection to remove elements from it. On Mac devices, you can achieve the same by using the Options key.

4. Making Intersections

To create intersecting selections, you need to hold the Alt and Shift keys while you select an intersecting area to make an intersection. On Mac devices, you can hold the Option and Shift keys to achieve the same.

Understanding Quick Selection Options

There are additional Quick Selection Options that let you adjust the currently selected layer.

1. Sample All Layers

The first option you will see beside the Add and Subtract from Selection options is “Sample All Layers”. The tool is designed to create a custom selection from all layers instead of just the currently selected layers.

If you make selections from multiple layers of an image, you can use the Sample All Layers option to merge them into a single selection for editing purposes. ‘

2. Auto-Enhance

Next up is the Auto Enhance. It is the perfect solution to jagged edges that are created when using Photoshop for selecting objects. The tool automatically enhances the roughness and blockiness of your selection boundaries. If you are not using a stylus for all your selections, you can use the tool.

The editing is fully software-based, and there are no customization options available.

3. Refine Edges

If you are not satisfied with Photoshop’s automated results, you should use the Refined Edge option to manually change the contrast and radius options to make your selections look immaculate.

You can use a thin brush to paint inside the part of your selection. Simply drag along the insides of your selection to continue smoothing it. You can adjust the Edge Detection settings from the menu to reduce the amount of sharpness and make your selection look much smoother.

4. Using the Magic Wand Tool

To use the Magic Wand tool, you can access it by holding down the Quick Selection Tool or right-clicking on the Quick Selection Icon to access it. Similar to the Quick Selection tool, you get the same Add to Selection, Subtract from Selection and Intersect with Selection options with the Magic Wand tool. Simply choose one of the selection options, and the Magic Wand tool’s pointer will change accordingly.

You can also use the options bar to adjust:

Tolerance: This option determines the color range of all selected pixels. You can set a value in pixels ranging from 0 to 255.

This option determines the color range of all selected pixels. You can set a value in pixels ranging from 0 to 255. Anti-Aliased: This option lets you have smoother edges when selecting your subject using the Magic Wand tool.

This option lets you have smoother edges when selecting your subject using the Magic Wand tool. Contiguous: You can automatically select adjacent areas that have the same colors as your selection when using the Contiguous tool.

The Sample All Layers and Refine Edge options are available with the Magic Wand tool as well, and they work exactly the same as when using the Quick Selection Tool.

Conclusion

It takes time and patience to get used to making perfect selections, and it is recommended that you zoom into the image slightly to get more accurate selections. It would be best if you also tinkered with your Brush size to optimize your selections for maximum accuracy.

Recommended Articles

This is a guide to Selection Tool in Photoshop. Here we discuss the basic concept of using the selection tool in photoshop with the help of screenshots. You may also look at the following article to learn more –

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