Adobe Photoshop

Lesson C: Lasso & Polygonal Lasso

Now let’s open an arresting image of a stop sign: “C polygonal lasso.psd.” (The bad puns are free.) We’ll be changing the color in the stop sign from red to green. First, we’ll experiment with the tools under discussion.

The Lasso Tool

If you tap the L key, you find yourself wielding the Lasso tool—or one of them. There are two worth looking at: the regular Lasso tool and the Polygonal Lasso tool. Both are very easy to use. The first is not meant for creating precise, intricate selections but rather loose, approximate ones.

• Activate the Lasso tool (tap the L key).
• Press and drag a loop around a part of the image (it doesn’t matter where, as we won’t use this tool in the end).
• When you release the mouse, you’ve ...