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Five tips to get perfect selections and cutouts in Photoshop

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Making selections and cutting out is probably the most common use for Photoshop. It’s used on countless product shoots, not to mention compositing. And it’s something that almost all of us need to do at some point during our photography journey.

Selections can be tricky, though, especially if you’ve not used them before. And even sometimes if you have used them before, given how often Adobe seems to change how they work. But here’s Colin Smith from photoshopCAFE to show you five tricks to help get perfect selections in Photoshop.
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The latest Photoshop update lets you select subjects with just one click

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A few months ago, Adobe announced a revolutionary feature that would let you select subjects in Photoshop CC with a single click. The latest update is now launched, and the Select Subject Tool is available. With this tool, you can select the subjects automatically, which should help you significantly speed up your editing workflow.

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New to Pen Tool? This tutorial will help you master it in under 8 minutes

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The Pen Tool allows you to cut out anything in Photoshop, and it’s especially useful with objects that have hard edges. However, many photographers find it difficult to master. Aaron Nace of Phlearn guides you through this great tool in this video tutorial. If you haven’t mastered the Pen Tool yet, this video will help you learn and improve in less than eight minutes.

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Quick tips for making sharp and precise selections in Photoshop

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The Magic Wand Tool or the Quick Selection Tool can make general selections fast and easy. But they’re not 100 percent precise and you’ll often have uneven and jagged edges. Unmesh Dinda (aka PiXimperfect) shares some quick tips to fix this and make selections very precise. With a couple of “hidden” sliders, you can make your selections far more accurate and do it in a matter of minutes.

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Adobe’s upcoming Photoshop CC update will select your subject automatically

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Adobe has published a sneak peek video of a new feature that will make a lot of photographers happy. In an upcoming update of Photoshop CC, the selection process will become much easier. As a matter of fact, it will take you just one click to get the starting selection of your subject. Meet the Select Subject feature.

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Saturation masks is an easy way to extract complex objects in Photoshop

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There are plenty of functions for masking in Photoshop, and each of them is useful in its own way. Whether it’s color selection,  focus masks, the new and kinda annoying mask-and-select dialogue or my beloved channel selection.

If you are following our blog, you should be familiar with my love for channels. Channel selection is always based on the contrast between red, green and blue, and I am manipulating them after duplicating the channel with the highest contrast.

Another way to create masks is using selections based on saturation. THis is not a well-known method, but it’s a very powerful way to create awesome masks when dealing with complex selections.

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10 tips to make selections that cut out anything in Photoshop

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Photoshop’s selection tools seem to evolve and change with every new update. Techniques and technology evolve to make selections a little easier than they were before. At least, that’s the theory, sometimes they just get more frustrating. But, there’s still no one technique that works for everything.

This video from Nathaniel Dodson at Tutvid is a long one. At 37 minutes, you’re not going to be finding any instant fix magic bullets. But, he goes through several different selection methods to explain how they all works, how to use them and what kind of images they work best on.

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How to fake the 2 stops magic bullet in Photoshop.

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Hey guys! Today I’m going to be showing you a cool tip for how to manipulate a natural light image within photoshop to be able to drag some of that control back between the subject and background separation that get’s stripped away when shooting with a strobe. Obviously you can find a better lit location but sometimes you find something great that doesn’t have the separation you wished for.

Here’s a great article on how to achieve the “real” effect with a strobe.

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How to get killer selections with Channels and Vivid Light

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Ever since wanting to focus on colour in my images I’ve found that often times due to budget or location, that I just quite simply cannot get the colours I’d like right in the camera. This means that I’ll often have to change colours in post and that, of course, in turn requires decent selections! There’s a million ways to do that in Photoshop, but I want to give you a kick start guide right here with a basic setup that I truly believe will change your life in selection if you’re unsure of this process.

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