How Do I See Areas Partially Selected?

IA
Posted By
i_am_jim
Jul 26, 2007
Views
278
Replies
8
Status
Closed
Sometimes I use the Wand to select large areas of the same density. I discover there must be parts of the area that are not fully selected, but there is no indication where these areas are. That is, I cannot find them to complete the selection. How do I make these incompletely selected areas visible?
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B
Bernie
Jul 26, 2007
Press ‘Q’

This will bring you in Quickmask mode.
GA
George_Austin
Jul 27, 2007
A completely selected area is 100% opaque. A completely unselected area is 0% opaque. The degree of selection is the same as its opacity. In standard mode, the only indicator you have is the marching ants. They separate areas with opacity less than 50% from areas with opacity greater than 50%.

In Quickmask mode, a rubylith (default color, user can alter) mask is used to indicate degree of selection (opacity). The opacity of the mask itself reflects the opacity of the area. You can adjust the mask opacity gradation. Thus, the mask opacity does not match the image opacity but correlates proportionately with it.
IA
i_am_jim
Jul 27, 2007
On Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:36:01 -0700,
wrote:
In Quickmask mode, a rubylith (default color, user can alter) mask is used to indicate degree of selection (opacity). The opacity of the mask itself reflects the opacity of the area. You can adjust the mask opacity gradation. Thus, the mask opacity does not match the image opacity but correlates proportionately with it.

Thanks for replying. I’ve not been able to see these partly selected areas in Quick Mask. I have not tried to adjust the opacity graduation. In fact, I didn’t realize that was a user selectible feature.
GA
George_Austin
Jul 27, 2007
I__am_jim,

Double click the Quick Mask icon on the tool bar to get a dialog box with options for mask color and mask opacity range. I think the default mask opacity is 50%.

To see the action painlessly, set the rectangular marquee to a feather radius of 100px or so (for a typical image—more or less if atypical), make a selection with it, then click on the QuickMask option. The central part of the selected area will be clear and it will get cloudy toward the edges of the selection and cloudier still beyond the edges.

If you have set the mask opacity to 100%, the outer part will be totally opaque rubylith (default color). In order to see through the rubylith mask to an extent with which you are happy, lower the mask opacity range. The option you set is the maximum, representing full 100% opacity in the image. The mask opacity then ranges from 0 to that maximum, representing the full image opacity range 0 to 100%.

George
IA
i_am_jim
Jul 27, 2007
On Thu, 26 Jul 2007 20:43:07 -0700,
wrote:

Double click the Quick Mask icon on the tool bar to get a dialog box with options for mask color and mask opacity range. I think the default mask opacity is 50%.

To see the action painlessly, set the rectangular marquee to a feather radius of 100px or so (for a typical image—more or less if atypical), make a selection with it, then click on the QuickMask option. The central part of the selected area will be clear and it will get cloudy toward the edges of the selection and cloudier still beyond the edges.

If you have set the mask opacity to 100%, the outer part will be totally opaque rubylith (default color). In order to see through the rubylith mask to an extent with which you are happy, lower the mask opacity range. The option you set is the maximum, representing full 100% opacity in the image. The mask opacity then ranges from 0 to that maximum, representing the full image opacity range 0 to 100%.

Thanks, Yes, I knew how to set the color and opacity. You indicated I could set the graduation. I assume now you meant it changes as a result of opacity change.
GA
George_Austin
Jul 27, 2007
i_am-jim,

Yes. But I see I got tangled up in my underwear. In the feathered selection example, by default, the mask opacity is INVERSELY related to the image opacity. It is maximum where the image TRANSPARENCY is 100% (image opacity zero).

George
T
thoughtstorms
Jul 30, 2007
I have found a fairly elegant work-around using Layer Styles. Copy your selection and immediately paste it to a new layer. Double click new layer and click Stroke. I usually dial it to 2 or 1 pixels wide, and a contrasting colour. This shows any swiss cheese holes you may have. Then, a 100% opaque brush to fill those gaps, so that the only "stroke colour" you see is around the edge. Speaking of edge, a 100% opaque eraser can help you clean that up as well. Now, you’ll have whatever colour with which your brush was loaded in the gaps. No worries, just [Ctrl+click] this working layer in the layer palette; throw the layer away, (or name it "Mask" and set it to invisible) and copy again from the image with your improved selection area.

"Robert" is now well and truly your "father’s brother". (c;
MV
Mathias_Vejerslev
Jul 30, 2007
It is more efficient to keep selections in the channels domain, as opposed to layers, as they then only takes up a third of the space in the file.

To make a new alpha channel from your selection, simply go to the channels tab and click the New channel from selection icon. You then manipulate the channel to your satisfaction. At any time, you can ctrl-click the alpha channel to make it a marching ant selection again.

The new Refine Edge command in PSCS3 has some of the general channel operations built-in, so you don’t need to ‘chop’ so much.

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