For the record, I clicked at the location
illustrated by the cursor in Figure 3-25.
The problem is that the relatively light
blue color of the sky is too close to the
silver of the saw blade. I tried a bunch of
different spots with the magic wand tool
and could not avoid picking up areas of
the blade because the tolerance setting is
too high. At the current Tolerance value,
Photoshop cannot distinguish between
the blue sky and the silver blade’s reflec-
tion of the blue sky.- Raise the Tolerance value. The Toler-
ance setting determines how many col-
ors are selected at a time, as measured
in luminosity values. By default, Photo-
shop selects colors that are 32 luminosity
values lighter and darker than the click
point (64 values in all). After that, the
selection drops off. Given that Photo-
shop kept grabbing parts of the blade,
the Tolerance must be too high.
I suggest lowering the Tolerance value
to 12. The easiest way is to press the
Enter or Return key to highlight the
value, enter 12, and press Enter or Re-
turn again. Note that this has no imme-
diate effect on the selection. Tolerance
is a static setting, meaning that it affects
the next operation you apply, as Step 7
explains. - Click the sky again and again. If you
click in the area I’ve indicated with a ➊
in Figure 3-25, you’ll find that the saw
blade is now nicely avoided, but so is the
right side of the sky itself. So press and
hold the Shift key, and click in the spot
indicated with a ➋. We’re getting closer
to capturing all the sky, but we still need
help from another selection command.
Figure 3-25.Figure 3-26.Selecting Regions of Continuous Color 77