Select a color range in an image

Choose Select > Color Range.

From the Select menu, choose one of the following:

To select colors that resemble common skin tones. Enable Detect Faces for more accurate skin tone selection.

To enable the Eyedropper tool and pick sample colors from the image. If you are selecting multiple color ranges in the image, select Localized Color Clusters to build a more accurate selection.

• A color or tonal range. You won't be able to adjust the selection if you use this option.

Select one of the display options:

Previews the selection that will result from the colors you sample in the image. By default, white areas are selected pixels, black areas are unselected, and gray areas are partially selected.

Previews the entire image. For example, you might want to sample from a part of the image that isn't on‑screen.

For sampled colors, position the Eyedropper pointer over the image or preview area, and click to sample the colors you want included.

To adjust the selection:

• To add colors, select the plus eyedropper, and click in the preview area or image.

• To remove colors, select the minus eyedropper, and click in the preview area or image.

Adjust the range of colors selected using the Fuzziness slider or by entering a value. The Fuzziness setting controls how wide a range of colors is in the selection, and increases or decreases the amount of partially selected pixels (gray areas in the selection preview). Set a low Fuzziness value to restrict the color range, a higher value to increase the range.

If you selected Localized Color Clusters, use the Range slider to control how far or near a color must be from the sample points to be included in the selection. For example, your image contains a patch of yellow flowers in both the foreground and the background, but you want to select just the foreground flowers. Sample the colors in the foreground flowers and reduce the Range so that the similarly colored flowers in the background are not selected.

To preview the selection in the image window, choose a Selection Preview option:

Shows the original image.

Shows white for completely selected pixels, gray for partially selected ones, and black for unselected ones.

Shows the original image for selected pixels, and black for unselected ones. This option is good for bright images.

Shows the original image for selected pixels, and white for unselected ones. This option is good for dark images.

Shows unselected areas as a rubylith overlay (or a custom color you've specified in the Quick Mask Options dialog box).

To revert to the original selection, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS), and click Reset.

To save and load color range settings, use the Save and Load buttons in the Color Range dialog box to save and reuse the current settings.

You can save Skin Tones selection settings as a preset.

Choose Select > Color Range.

In the Color Range dialog box, choose Skin Tones from the Select menu.

For more accurate skin tone selection, select Detect Faces and then adjust the Fuzziness slider or enter a value. To help you make your selections, make sure the display option is set to Selection and choose a Selection Preview to view your selections in the document window.

Click the Save button and in the Save window, type a file name for the skin tone preset, and then click Save.

In the Color Range dialog box, click the Load button.

In the Load window, select the preset file you want, and then click Load.