Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition

Selection Basics

What’s so great about selections, anyway? Lots. After you make a selection, you can do all kinds of neat things with the selection itself, as well as the pixels that live inside it:

• Move it around. To move the pixels in part of an image, you need to select them first. You can even move selections from one document to another, as discussed on Moving Selections. For example, a little head swapping is great fun after breakups—you can stick your ex’s head onto a ballerina’s body using selections (see Saving a Selection). You can even scoot your selection around while you’re making it, in case you didn’t get it in the right spot at first (see the Tip on Tip).

• Resize or transform it. Need to change the size or shape of a selection before you manipulate the pixels inside it? No problem: Once you’ve made the selection, you can transform it into whatever size or shape you need (Creating a Border Selection). With this maneuver, Photoshop won’t reshape any pixels that are inside the selected area; it just changes the shape of the selection itself. This trick is handy when you’re trying to select part of an image that’s in perspective, as shown on Transforming a Selection. Likewise, you can also transform the pixels you’ve selected, which is helpful when you’re resizing or slimming your subject (Slimming with Free Transform).

• Fill it with color, a repeating pattern, or nearby pixels. Normally, the Edit→Fill command or a fill layer floods an entire layer with color, but by creating ...