From the course: Photoshop CS5 One-on-One: Mastery

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Using the image to select itself

Using the image to select itself - Photoshop Tutorial

From the course: Photoshop CS5 One-on-One: Mastery

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Using the image to select itself

In its simplest form, a mask is another way of looking at a selection outline, but instead of seeing your full- color composition with a line of animated marching ants surrounding the selected area, your full-color composition goes away and you see a grayscale image in its place. In that grayscale image the selected area is white and the deselected area is black, which on the face of it is insane. What good is seeing your selection as a grayscale image and how in the world can you evaluate the accuracy of a selection, if you can't even see the thing you're trying to select. Well, let's back up for a moment, imagine this simple scenario. Say you have a photograph of a light- skinned guy with light hair against a very dark background and you want to select him. If you have to rely on the selection tools then you'll spend a lot of time clicking with the Magic Wand, and dragging with the Quick Selection tool and maybe filling in some details with the Magnetic Lasso. And in the end even…

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