Delve into an advanced Photoshop tutorial, learning how to make selections using channels and paths, with a hands-on exercise focused on selecting lemons and glasses in an image.
This exercise is excerpted from Noble Desktop’s past Photoshop training materials and is compatible with Photoshop updates through 2020. To learn current skills in Photoshop, check out our Photoshop Bootcamp and graphic design classes in NYC and live online.
Topics Covered in This Photoshop Tutorial:
Making Selections Using Channels, Making More Selections Using Paths
Exercise Preview
Exercise Overview
In this exercise, we will select the lemons and the bottle’s glass, saving the selections as channels. We will also select the tumbler glass and save it as a path.
Selecting the Tumbler Glass Using a Path
If it’s not still open, re-open yourname-product-Adobe RGB.psd.
Make sure no paths are selected.
Use the Pen tool
to draw a path around the tumbler glass at the bottom right.In the Paths panel, name the path tumbler glass.
Deselect the path by hitting Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows).
Selecting the Lemons
Go to the Channels panel and click the Create new channel button
.- Double–click anywhere on the new channel (except on the name) and:
- Name it lemons
- Under Color Indicates: select Selected Areas.
- Color: choose a bright lime green.
- Opacity: 50%
- Click OK.
With the lemons channel still selected, show
the composite RGB.Paint a selection for the top half of the lemons near the bottle. You don’t need to worry as much about the bottom half. The important part is where the lemons are covering the bottle.
When done painting the lemons selection, hide
the lemons channel.
Selecting the Glass of the Bottle
Go to the Paths panel and load the bottle path as a selection by Cmd–clicking (Mac) or CTRL–clicking (Windows) the path thumbnail.
In the Paths panel, click once on the label and cap path.
Go to the Paths panel menu
and choose Make Selection.-
In the dialog box that appears, choose:
Feather Radius: 0 Anti-aliased: Check it on Operation: Subtract from Selection Click OK.
In the Paths panel, Cmd–Opt–click (Mac) or CTRL–ALT–click (Windows) the tumbler glass path thumbnail to subtract it from the selection.
Go to the Channels panel.
Subtract the lemons channel by Cmd–Opt–clicking (Mac) or CTRL–ALT–clicking (Windows) it.
Go to Select > Save Selection to save the selection as a new channel.
Name the new channel bottle’s glass and click OK.
Get rid of the selection (Cmd–D (Mac) or CTRL–D (Windows)).
Save the file and leave it open. You’ll continue to work with it in the next exercise.
