12
QuickMask 3: transformations
IMAGE: COREL
1
The hubcap on this car is a perfect circle photographed
from an oblique angle. The Elliptical Marquee tool,
however, only works on an orthogonal axis – there’s no way to
make it draw at an angle, as would be required here.
4
Enter Free Transform mode by pressing Ct Lt,
and selection borders will appear around the circle – no
need to make an additional selection first. Drag the circle so
one edge touches the edge of the hubcap, and rotate it.
7
To select the water in
this glass, draw a circle
as before, and press q to
enter QuickMask mode.
8
Use Free Transform
(Ct Lt)
to squeeze up the circle,
rotating it if necessary, so it
fits the water surface.
A
S WELL AS USING PAINTING
tools, you can use any of the standard
transformation tools within QuickMask. This
can make it easier to select tricky areas, such
as the angled hubcaps on this sports car. Even
though the hubcap is an ellipse, the angle
at which it’s been photographed makes it
impossible to select with the standard Elliptical
Marquee tool. QuickMask, however, makes
short work of the problem.
QuickMask can be used for creating all
kinds of shapes from scratch. It’s particularly
useful to be able to use QuickMask to combine
selection shapes, and this is how we select a
complex area such as the liquid in the glass at
the bottom.
There are many more uses to QuickMask
than are shown here. Get into the habit of
using it for your everyday selections, and you’ll
find it quickly repays the effort.
12
1
Natural selection
SHORTCUTS
MAC WIN BOTH
13
9
Select the ellipse with
the Magic Wand (w),
then switch to the Move tool
(v) and hold O A as
you drag to make a copy.
11
Use the Lasso tool to
trace through both
ellipses and down the sides
of the glass, holding OA
to draw straight lines.
10
Use Free Transform
on this second
ellipse to make the shape
for the bottom of the water,
inside the glass.
12
Use OB
AB to fill
this selection with red, then
press q to leave QuickMask
with the water selected.
3
Now enter QuickMask mode by pressing q. The circle
you just drew will appear as a solid red circle, which
will show us exactly where our selection edges lie in the
illustration.
HOT TIP
You might wonder
why we bother
using QuickMask
to make this
selection, rather
than using
Photoshop’s
Transform
Selection tool.
The answer is that
it’s really quite
hard to make out
an accurately
positioned
border when it’s
composed of a row
of marching ants;
using QuickMask,
however, shows
us the selection
as a solid block of
red, which makes
it much easier to
see through to the
underlying image.
2
Use the Elliptical Marquee tool to draw a circle anywhere
on the image (hold the S key as you draw to
constrain it to a circle). You’ll find the Elliptical Marquee tool
nested behind the regular Marquee tool in the toolbar.
6
With the ellipse perfectly positioned, press E to
leave Free Transform, then press q once again to leave
QuickMask mode. You can now move the hubcap, or make a
new layer from it.
5
Now pull in the opposite handle so it touches the
opposite rim of the hubcap, and do the same with the
top and bottom edges. You may need to adjust the angle of
rotation of the ellipse so it matches the hubcap perfectly.
13
How to Cheat in Photoshop CC
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