Tools & Techniques

Stop Clicking Around: The Photoshop Selection Tools That Actually Matter (And When to Use Them)
Tools & Techniques

Stop Clicking Around: The Photoshop Selection Tools That Actually Matter (And When to Use Them)

A while back, a friend watched me spend about 25 minutes carefully lassoing around a person’s hair in a product photo. He didn’t say anything at first. Just watched. Then, very quietly, he pointed at the toolbar and said, “Have you tried Select Subject?” I had not. The thing took three seconds. Three. I’d been doing it the hard way for years, and I didn’t even know there was a better way because I’d never needed to look it up.

Stop Reaching for the Lasso Tool First — A Smarter Way to Think About Photoshop Selections
Tools & Techniques

Stop Reaching for the Lasso Tool First — A Smarter Way to Think About Photoshop Selections

I was sitting at my usual corner table at once coffee shop, headphones in, trying to cut out a product shot for a client on a deadline. The object was a glass bottle, semi-transparent, with a label that had soft edges on one side and hard edges on the other. I spent 45 minutes with the Pen Tool before I stopped, stared at my screen, and genuinely asked myself whether I had any idea what I was doing.

Stop Clicking Around: How to Actually Choose the Right Selection Tool in Photoshop
Tools & Techniques

Stop Clicking Around: How to Actually Choose the Right Selection Tool in Photoshop

I had a client ask me to cut out a model from a white studio background last year. Simple job. Twenty seconds, maybe. I watched the file come through, opened it, and instinctively reached for the Quick Selection tool out of habit. Four minutes later I was still cleaning up jagged edges around flyaway hair and quietly hating myself. The Object Selection tool with a quick mask refinement would have had it done in under a minute.