Shave Time Off Selection Creation in Photoshop With These Tips

Creating quality selections is often what sets apart convincing edits in Photoshop from poorly done ones, which often means spending plenty of time perfecting yours. But there are ways to shave time off your selection work. 

Colin Smith at PhotoshopCAFE details several tips in this video that by themselves aren't Earth shattering. However, by adding them to your Photoshop repertoire, you're sure to create better selections faster and streamline your workflow. 

Smith's use of the space bar to move the center of a selection is particularly helpful when using the elliptical tool. Personally, I always struggle to place the top left corner exactly where it's going to need to be on the first try. Usually, this meant creating a selection that was close in size to what I needed, then moving the selection, then resizing, rinse, repeat, until the selection was perfect.

By using the space bar, you don't have to release the selection to move it. This might only shave off a few seconds in creating your selection, but when you're doing a lot of Photoshop editing, those seconds will add up. 

Some of Smith's tips were already familiar, but others were new to me — such as using multiple tools to create one selection — and will surely become part of my everyday work. Did you find the selection tips helpful? What other tips do you use to create accurate selections quickly? Drop a comment below and let us know. 

Brian Pernicone's picture

Brian Pernicone grew up admiring the coastal waters of New England and that influence is evident in much of his work, which focuses primarily on coastal landscapes, boats, New England wildlife, and water sports.

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1 Comment

Nicely done, clear and to the point.
Learned a couple of things there, thanks.