Photoshop has a varied list of tools which makes it really complicated software. But as the person learns step by step, it takes just a few seconds. To use the software, a beginner should be aware of its basic tools that are used. Here, today we will learn how to use the Elliptical Tool In Photoshop CS6 which is used to making a selection.
Let’s learn the basics of the tool to master it.
The elliptical tool is a part of the marquee tool which is set at the left side in the tool panel. The other marquee tools are rectangular marquee tool, Single row marquee tool, and single column marquee tool.
To activate the elliptical marquee tool, click on the marquee tool icon. Now you just have to drag the cursor on the screen to make a selection inside the image.
To show how it will appear, I have made a selection around the moon in the image below,
To master the tool keep two major things in mind,
- When you make an elliptical selection, press shift, and drop down the cursor to make the selection.
- Press Spacebar if you want to move the part of the image which you have selected.
Now let’s get familiar with the options panel of marquee tool which appears at the top of the screen.
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New selection
While working on the selection, if you feel like you want to make a new selection then just press Ctrl+D to deselect the selected area and make a new selection.
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Add selection
To add a selection area to the existing selected area, activate this option. As you will click on this option, you will notice a +sign along with the cursor.
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Minus selection
A complete contradiction of the additional selection. If you have to lessen an area in the selection then press on the minus selection and a –sign will appear with the cursor.
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Intersect with selection
In the meanwhile, if a small portion overlaps the selection area, you can remove that with this option. A sign of x multiplication will appear with the cursor.
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Feather
This is used to soften the edges of the selection area.
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Anti-alias
With this, your selection will soften unlike the feather tool, where you can adjust the softness of the edges. This is to provide a better color tone and refrains from getting a sharp selection.
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Style
The style comes with 3 sub-options, first is normal which doesn’t make any changes. The second one is the fixed ratio, where you will have to enter the width and height. The last option is a fixed size which means that even if you drag the image to a different place the selection will be made on the same dimensions.
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Refine edge
This tool helps in refining the edges of the selection. This is considered as a versatile tool in the Photoshop software. The feather tool is a part of this tool.
And here we are done! Now practice and master this tool to make the selection of an object in Photoshop easy.
