Absolute Beginner's Guide to Digital Photography

CHAPTER 11 ADVANCED SELECTION TOOLS 165

For example, if the lightest pixels in an image are selected by Color Range and then

you choose Adjust, Hue/Saturation, the saturation of the highlights will be changed

a lot, the saturation of the midtones a little, and the shadow saturation will be

unchanged (see Figure 11.16).

FIGURE 11.16
Correcting a
bad scan with
Color Range.

Another advantage of Color Range is selecting pixels within an existing selection.

Ordinarily, Color Range selects similar pixels everywhere in the image. However, if a

selection already exists, Color Range will select only within that selection. This is

useful if you want to edit only one part of the image. If you want to add a Color

Range selection outside an existing selection, hold down the Shift key while choosing

the Color Range command.

To see the selection in more detail, you can apply a colored overlay (a mask) to the

unselected areas of the image itself by choosing a mask from the Selection Preview

pull-down menu. A white mask is shown (see Figure 11.17).

After completing the selection, a complex curve is created to bring out the shadow

detail (if any) without blowing out the midtones.

Modifying Selections

You can increase or decrease the size of a selection. The changes do not have to be

made with the original selection tool; you can lasso a selection, add areas to it with

a color selection tool, and then shrink it with the Contract command. The following

commands are available in Adobe Photoshop 6 and higher: