A selection is an area of a photo that you define. When you create a selection, the area is editable (for example, you can lighten one part of a photo without affecting the rest). You can make a selection with either a selection tool or a selection command. A selection border, which you can hide, surrounds the selection. You can change, copy, or delete pixels inside the selection border, but you can’t touch areas outside the selection border until you deselect the selection.
Adobe Photoshop Elements provides selection tools for different kinds of selections. For example, the Elliptical Marquee tool selects circular and elliptical areas, and the Magic Wand tool can select an area of similar colors with one click. More complex selections can be made with one of the Lasso tools. You can even smooth the edges of a selection with feathering and anti-aliasing.
Note:
Selections are limited to the active layer—to make changes to all layers at once, you first need to flatten the image.
The selection tools are located in the Tools panel, which is located, by default, on the left side of your screen.
In Photoshop Elements, you must be in Expert mode to see the selection tools.
Rectangular Marquee tool: Draws square or rectangular selection borders.
Elliptical Marquee tool: Draws round or elliptical selection borders.
Lasso tool: Draws freehand selection borders, best for precision.
Polygonal Lasso tool: Draws multiple straight-edged segments of a selection border.
Magnetic Lasso tool: Draws a selection border that automatically snaps to edges when you drag over in the photo.
Magic Wand tool: Selects pixels of similar color with one click
Quick Selection tool: Quickly and automatically makes selection based on color and texture when you click or click-drag an area.
Selection Brush tool: Automatically selects or deselects the area you paint, depending on whether you’re in Sselection or Mask mode.
Auto Selection tool: Automatically makes a selection when you draw a shape around an object.
Smart Brush tool: Applies color and tonal adjustments and effects to a selection. The tool automatically creates an adjustment layer for non-destructive editing.
The Rectangular Marquee tool draws square or rectangular selection borders, and the Elliptical Marquee tool draws round or elliptical selection borders.
A. Rectangular Marquee tool B. Elliptical Marquee tool C. New selection D. Add to selection E. Subtract from selection F. Intersect with selection
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Drag over the area you want to select. Hold down the Shift key as you drag to constrain the selection marquee to a square or circle.
Note:
To drag a marquee from the center, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) after you begin dragging.
Note:
To reposition a marquee tool selection border, hold down the spacebar as you drag with the selection tool. Release the spacebar once the selection border is in the correct area.
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Click Refine Edge to make further adjustments to your selection and make it more precise. See how you can refine the edges of a selection.
A. Lasso tool B. Polygonal Lasso tool C. Magnetic Lasso tool D. New selection E. Add to selection F. Subtract from selection G. Intersect with selection
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Click Refine Edge to make further adjustments to your selection and make it more precise. See how you can refine the edges of a selection.
, drag.
, drag.The Polygonal Lasso tool draws straight-edged segments of a selection border. You can create as many segments as you need to draw a selection border.
A. Lasso tool B. Polygonal Lasso tool C. Magnetic Lasso tool D. New selection E. Add to selection F. Subtract from selection G. Intersect with selection
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Click Refine Edge to make further adjustments to your selection and make it more precise. See how you can refine the edges of a selection.
The
Magnetic Lasso tool draws a selection border that automatically
snaps to the edges of objects you drag over in the photo. This makes
it easy to draw precise selection borders. The Magnetic Lasso tool 
is
useful for quickly selecting objects with complex edges set against
high-contrast backgrounds.
A. Lasso tool B. Polygonal Lasso tool C. Magnetic Lasso tool D. New selection E. Add to selection F. Subtract from selection G. Intersect with selection
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- Specify whether to create a new selection, add to an existing selection, subtract from a selection, or select an area intersected by other selections.
- To soften the selection border so that it blends into the area outside the selection, enter a Feather value.
- To specify the area of edge detection, enter a pixel value between 1 and 256 for Width. The tool detects edges only within the specified distance from the pointer.
Note:
To change the Magnetic Lasso pointer so that it indicates the area of edge detection (the Width value), press the Caps Lock key.
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The Magic Wand tool selects pixels within a similar color range with one click. You specify the color range, or tolerance, for the Magic Wand tool’s selection. Use the Magic Wand tool when you have an area of similar colors, like a blue sky.
A. Magic Wand tool B. New selection C. Add to selection D. Subtract from selection E. Intersect with selection
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- For Tolerance, enter a value between 0 to 255. Enter a low value to select colors very similar to the pixel you click, or enter a higher value to select a broader range of colors.
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Click Refine Edge to make further adjustments to your selection and make it more precise. See how you can refine the edges of a selection.
The Quick Selection tool makes a selection based on color and texture similarity when you click or click-drag the area you want to select. The mark you make doesn’t need to be precise, because the Quick Selection tool automatically and intuitively creates a border.
Note:
The Smart Brush tool makes selections like the Quick Selection tool and simultaneously applies a color or tonal adjustment. See Apply the Smart Brush tools.
A. Quick Selection tool B. New selection C. Add to selection D. Subtract from selection
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- To add to the selection, click the Add To Selection button in the options bar, and click or click-drag across the area you want to add.
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Click Refine Edge to make further adjustments to your selection and make it more precise. See how you can refine the edges of a selection.
The Selection Brush tool makes selections two ways: you can paint over the area you want to select in Selection mode, or you can paint over areas you don’t want to select using a semiopaque overlay in Mask mode.
You can first make a rough selection with a marquee tool, Quick Selection tool, or other selection tool, and then fine-tune your selection with the Selection Brush tool. You can add to the selection using the Selection Brush tool in Selection mode, or subtract from it in Mask mode.
A. Selection Brush B. Add to selection C. Subtract from selection D. Selection pop-up E. Brush pop-up F. Brush size G. Hardness H. Refine Edge dialog button
. To
subtract from the selection, click Subtract From Selection 
in
the options bar.
The Refine Selection Brush helps you add or remove areas to and from a selection by automatically detecting the edges. For more information, see Edit and refine selections.
The Auto Selection tool automatically makes a selection when you draw a shape around the object you want to select. The shape you draw doesn't have to be precise, it just needs to outline the object you want to select.
The tool is available in the toolbar of the Quick and Expert modes.
A. Auto Selection Tool B. New Selection C. Add to selection D. Subtract from selection E. Rectangle F. Ellipse G. Lasso H. Polygon Lasso
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In the Tool Options bar, choose one of the following:
- New selection: Lets you draw a new selection. This option is selected by default.
- Add to selection: Lets you add to an existing selection.
- Subtract from selection: Lets you subtract from an existing selection. This option is only available after you make a selection.
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Select one of the following to draw around the object you want to select:
- Rectangle: Use this option for drawing a rectangular segment of a selection border.
- Ellipse: Use this option for drawing an elliptical or circular segment of a selection border.
- Lasso: Use this option for drawing free-form segments of a selection border.
- Polygon lasso: Use this option for drawing straight-edged segments of a selection border.
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Do any of the following to refine the selection:
- To add to the selection, click the Add to selection button in the options bar, and draw across the area you want to add.
- To remove an area from the selection, click the Subtract from selection button in the options bar, and draw across the area you want to subtract from the selection.
- To start a new selection, click the New selection button in the options bar, and draw to specify the new selection area.
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Click Refine Edge to make further adjustments to your selection and make it more precise. For more information, see Refine edges of a selection.
Note:
The Magic Extractor feature is not available in Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 and above.
Use the Magic Extractor to make accurate selections based on the appearance of foreground and background areas that you specify. You can specify these areas by placing colored marks in the areas you want to select. After you mark the areas and close the dialog box, only the foreground area appears in the photo.
The Magic Extractor makes it easy to select people or objects so that you can superimpose them on other backgrounds. For example, you can remove yourself from a photo of you on your bicycle at home, and superimpose it on a photo of cyclists in the Tour de France. You can save the extracted image as a file that you can use again and again.
A. Area you want to extract marked with red dots B. Background marked with blue dots C. Extracted image
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- To add to or subtract from the selection, draw more dots or lines using either the Foreground or Background Brush tool.
- To erase foreground or background dots, select the Point Eraser tool and click or drag over the marks you want to remove.
- To add areas to a selection, select the Add To Selection tool, and click or drag over the area you want to add.
- To remove areas from the selection, select the Remove From Selection tool and drag over the areas you want to remove.
- To smooth the edges of your foreground selection, select the Smoothing Brush tool and drag over the areas you want to smooth.
selected
by default. 
In Photoshop Elements, you can fine-tune your selection using the Refine Edge (select a portion of an image, right-click the selection, and choose Refine Edge from the context menu) dialog box. You can also open the Refine Edge dialog by choosing Select > Refine Edge.
To open the Refine Edge dialog on a Mac, select a portion of an image, Control-click the selection, and choose Refine Edge.
View Mode. From the View pop-out menu, choose a view mode for your selection. Press F to cycle through the modes
Show Radius. Displays the radius of the edge refinement.
Refine Radius 
and Erase Refinements 
tools. Precisely adjust the border area in which edge refinement occurs. To quickly toggle from one tool to the other, press E. To change the brush size, press the bracket keys. Note: Brush over soft areas such as hair or fur, to add fine details to the selection.
Smart Radius. Automatically adjusts the radius for hard and soft edges found in the border region. Deselect this option if the border is uniformly hard- or soft-edged, or if you want to control the Radius setting and refinement brushes more precisely.
Radius. Determines the size of the selection border in which edge refinement occurs. Use a small radius for sharp edges, and a large one for softer edges.
Smooth. Reduces irregular areas (“hills and valleys”) in the selection border to create a smoother outline.
Feather. Blurs the transition between the selection and surrounding pixels.
Contrast. When increased, soft-edged transitions along the selection border become more abrupt.Typically, the Smart Radius option and refinement tools are more effective.
Shift Edge. Moves soft-edged borders inward with negative values or outward with positive ones. Shifting these borders inward can help remove unwanted background colors from selection edges.
Decontaminate Colors. Replaces color fringes with the color of fully selected pixels nearby. The strength of color replacement is proportionate to the softness of selection edges.
Important: Because this option changes pixel color, it requires output to a new layer or document. Retain the original layer so you can revert back to it if needed. (To easily see changes in pixel color, choose Reveal Layer for the View Mode.)
Amount. Changes the level of decontamination and fringe replacement.
Output To. Determines whether the refined selection becomes a selection or mask on the current layer, or produces a new layer or document.
When you delete a selection on a background layer, the selected area is replaced with the background color or checkerboard background pattern (transparent pixels).
- Choose Edit > Delete to remove the selection. (If you delete a selection by mistake, you can choose Edit > Undo to get it back.)
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