how to use magic wand tool to subtract instead of add

Turning Contiguous off might save you a few click but you will also risk selecting areas you do not need, you are better off leaving Contiguous on and use the Add/subtract selecting technique discussed earlier.īy default Sample All layers is turned off, magic wand will only work off of the active layer, even though you can see the layer below magic wand will still ignore it. If I turn contiguous off, it now selects the isolated area but also everything else that looks like the white background such as the highlight area on the heel. See the example below, I tried to select the white background with Contiguous on, it does not select the white background isolated by the pink heel and the black heel. The only problem with setting high Tolerance is that you might end up selecting colors you do not need so it might be better to set the Tolerance low and use the Add/Subtract function.Īnti-Alias, it will make the edge of your selection a bit softer to create the illusion that the edge is smoother.Ĭontiguous selection will only select area that are connected. If the object you are trying to select is fairly evenly toned you will only need to low Tolerance value to work, but if your background is poorly lit and has too much variation, you might want to go with a higher value. Tolerance value determined how much similar color Photoshop should pick up. If one click is not enough to cover your entire selection you can use the add (or hold Shift while selecting ), subtract (or hold Alt/Option while selecting ), or create intersection(or hold Alt/Option + Shift while selecting) icons to help you expand and perfect your selections. Of course you might not always have the luxury to use a nice clean background so here are some tools to make your life easier.Ībove is the first half of the magic wand menu. Magic wand works by selecting similar colors in your photo, so if you have a photo of a model in front of a solid color background you can use magic wand to automatically select and delete the entire background. If you need to quickly select an area of similar color such as replacing the sky or a green screen Magic Wand is your tool.Īctivate Magic Wand by hitting (W) key or select it from the tool box.

How to use magic wand tool to subtract instead of add