which is what I have done with the sample whiskey image in Figure
7.12. This is not approved by some; in particular, iStockphoto regards
the magic wand tool as the work of evil and demented minds! That is
not my view, provided that you take care and don’t use it on unsuit-
able subjects such as pictures with complex backgrounds.
Stage 1: use the magic wand tool to select
unwanted background
Start by selecting the background using the magic wand tool. If you
are not happy that you have all the background selected, add to the
selected area. (I fi nd that switching to quick mask and adding or sub-
tracting from the mask using the paint brush to add, or eraser to
remove, parts of the mask to tidy up rough edges or missed sections
can help a lot.) When you are happy with your selection (check
again!), invert the selection to select that part of the image you want
to save (Figure 7.12).
A B
FIGURE 7.12A and B The “marching
ants” outlining the selection before inversion.
Once inverted, check the quick mask tool and
use the paint tool or eraser to add or remove
rough selected edges. Always review your
work at 100% on screen. © Douglas FreerCLIPPING PATHS 131