Bezier Curve Tool:
Although the Lasso tool can be used to make selections of any shape, for some selection tasks it may not always be the best tool to use. If you need to select areas containing curved lines, you may - depending on your computer mouse skills - get better results using PhotoImpacts Bezier Curve. This tool can be used for drawing 2D or 3D shapes, eg for generating original artwork, but can be used to make selections as well. It can also be edited after a selection has been completed (unlike the Lasso tool). Generally speaking, the Bezier Curve is better than the Lassso tool for creating selections containing curved lines as well as straight lines.

Using the bezier curve: Select the Bezier Curve icon from the Tool Panel menu (see above). Select the shape you wish to create from the Shape options on the Attribute toolbar (see right). For selecting irregular shapes, use the Free Path option.

Making a Bezier Curve selection has some similarity to the Lasso tool, in that selection points are created by clicking the mouse cursor on points along the edge of the shape to be selected, then double clicking when back at the start point. When a segment of the selection falls on a curved line, click, and then drag, the mouse pointer to create a set of control handle points (see below). These selection node control points can be used to facilitate drawing curved lines more smoothly than the Lasso tool.
Using the Bezier Curve to its full potential does require practice, but is a useful skill to develop.

Editing a bezier curve:
When completed, the selection can be edited at any time by right clicking the mouse, and selecting Edit Path from the available options. The existing control points can be moved as necessary to fine tune the selection by clicking on a point, and dragging it with the mouse cursor to its new position. Additional control points can be added to a selection, and exisiting ones deleted as well.
Tip: If you wish to make a selection that contains only curved lines, PhotoImpact also has a Spline tool which is ideal for this purpose. The Spline tool can be found within the Path drawing tools.



Magic Wand Selection Tool:
While tools such as the Lasso and Bezier Curve are used to make selections on the basis of shape, the Magic Wand tool is used to make selections on the basis of colour. For photo editing, the Magic Wand generally works best when selecting either a distinct colour, or a limited range of colours, particularly where colours are confined to a limited area of the image.

Example: A good example of using the magic wand tool would be selecting a clear blue sky in a photograph. The sky in the original photo (far left) is a relatively uniform colour, and similar tones mostly occur in one area of the image. There is also a clear colour difference between the sky and adjacent edge areas, in this case the grey coloured griffin, which also facilitates selection with the magic wand. After selecting the sky with the magic wand, additional editing tools were used to darken the sky, producing a deep blue colour similar to that obtained from a polarising filter on a camera lens (see above right).

To make a selection using the Magic Wand, click the magic wand icon on the Tool Panel. Continue by checking the required selection method (line or area) on the Attribute toolbar, and the estimated level of similarity required for a good selection. In this example, selection was made by line, with similarity value set initially to 1. The 'Search Connected Pixels' check box was also chosen to confine selection to the sky area. When the selection criteria are completed, drag the mouse cursor across the colours that need to be selected.

Setting similarity value: Setting the similarity value is generally trial and error, and you may wish to try starting with a low number such as zero or 1. A value of 0 selects neighbouring pixels with exactly the same colour value, while a value of 255 selects pixels of all colours (in other words, the entire image). For photo editing, values between 0 and 25 will probably be the most commonly used settings.

Examples shown below indicate the extent of the magic wand selection using similarity values of 1 (left) and 25 (right). A similarity value of 1 only selected part of the sky, indicating a greater degree of similarity is required to select all the sky. The similarity value was increased using trial and error until all the sky was selected. In this example, a value of 25 produced a good selection.

Adding to a selection: There may be occasions when its necessary to expand the current selection, to include further areas not currently selected. In the example photograph, there are areas of unselected sky due to the 'select connected pixels' option being used (see left). This is not a problem as further colours can be added, or subtracted, to the current selection.

To add, or subtract, from the initial selection, click the plus (+) or minus (-) icon on the Attribute toolbar (see right), then continue making further selections with the magic wand as previously, until the selection is satisfactory.



Colour Range Selection Tool:
Like the magic wand tool, colour range is also useful for making selections on the basis of colour. While the magic wand selects all pixels within a specified colour range, the colour range tool creates a gradient selection mask based on each pixels colour similarity to the specified colours. This makes it an excellent tool for selecting non-adjacent similar colours across an image, particularly where a soft edge is preferable on non-selected adjacent areas.

In the example shown right, the yellow flowers in the foreground container look a little muddy and have an orange cast (original photo). Trying to select each yellow flower head with something like the lasso tool would be very difficult and time consuming. Using the magic wand would be more successful, as this makes selections on the basis of colour, but produces relatively hard edges between selected and non-selected adjacent areas. The image on the far right shows the edited flowers after making a selection using colour range. The yellow colour in both the foreground and background flowers is brighter and more accurate, compared to the original image.

A further comparison between magic wand and colour range is shown left using a magnified section from the example image. The yellow flowers on the right image were selected using colour range, and those on the left using magic wand. Brightness value was increased by 50 in both cases after the selection was completed. The magic wand version shows a hard edge between selected and non selected areas, while the colour range selection has a much smoother transition. Although its possible to soften edges of the magic wand selection (within the Object Properties dialog box), diminishing the difference between the two methods, the colour range version produces a more subtle and better result, with better gradation across selected areas. However, its always worth trying alternative methods to see which work best.


Using colour range selection: Click Selection on the Main menu bar, then select Colour Range. The dialog box shown right will appear. Selections can be made using either Sampled Colours or the Standard option. The former is based on a selected colour, while the latter is based on highlight, midtone and shadow areas within the entire image. In this example, the Sampled Colours option was selected (see right) then the eyedropper tool used to select the required colour in the left hand pane.

Move the Similarity slider to increase or decrease the level of similarity to the colour selected with the eyedropper. Changes are shown in the right hand panel as a black and white greyscale image (providing the Preview option is checked). You can also use the add (+) and subtract (-) eyedroppers to increase or decrease a selection range.