Take a look at the photo below (taken at the Luxor Casino, Las Vegas USA).
Because the photo contains so much sky, the camera has underexposed the statue,
which looks almost like a silhouette. We could increase the brightness of the
entire picture (preferably using the level control or the curves control) but
this would lighten the sky which might then become a boring uniform white (try
it if you like). Therefore we would like to lighten the statue without affecting
the sky - a perfect case for using a selection.
One of the easiest selection tools to use is the magic wand tool
.
This tool selects contiguous areas that have roughly the same colour.
Double-click the magic wand tool and check what options are available. The tolerance
controls how wide a range of colours the tool will select (if the number is
small the tool will select only areas that have almost exactly the same colour
as the point clicked). Anti-aliased ensures that the edge of the
selection will be smooth, not jagged, and this should usually be turned on. You
may be assuming that will be clicking on the statue with this tool in
order to try to select it but it is actually better to try to select the sky
for the sky has a very even colour and is therefore very easy to select with
this tool. Once the sky is selected it will be easy to inverse the selection so
that everything but the sky is selected.
First set the tolerance to a small value such as 10 and try clicking the sky
- you will probably find that only a small part of the sky is selected (the
edges of the selected area are marked by shimmering 'marching ants'). Then
deselect with Ctrl-D or Select>Deselect, set the tolerance to a high
value such as 190 (the maximum is 255) and click the sky again. Now you will
probably find that in addition to the sky a part of the statue is also selected.
Deselect again, set the tolerance to an intermediate value such as 80 and click
the sky once more. Now you will probably be pleased by the result, except that
only half the sky is selected because the light area is broken by the
statue. To add to the existing selection, hold down the Shift key while you
click the other half of the sky (notice the small + sign next to the pointer).
Actually, if you look closely, you'll see there are a couple of other areas to
be added to your sky selection, between the branches of the palm tree.
Once all the sky is selected you can invert the selection with Select>Inverse.
Now only the statue and the palm tree are selected. Experiment with the curve
control (Ctrl-M) or the level control (Ctrl-L) to lighten the statue, without
overdoing it. You may also want to make the colours a little more intense by choosing Image>Adjust>Hue/Saturation and then using the saturation
slider (the saturation of the colours is a measure of how intense they are).
Save your work when you are finished.
We will return to the image in the
'layers' lesson and I will show you how to completely replace the sky with a new
one!
