Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Subtract from selection . In this mode, even if your cursor is inside the existing selec-
tion, dragging makes the Refine Selection Brush remove whatever you drag over. For in-
stance, if you've selected a water tower, you can use this mode to remove the back-
ground area visible between the tower's legs, even though that area is within your origin-
al selection.
Push . This is the mode you'll normally use with this tool. Push mode makes the Refine
Selection Brush automatically find and analyze the edges of the objects you drag over. If
you move the cursor within a selected area, that area gets removed from your selection.
If you drag over an area outside your selection, Elements adds that area to your selection.
The Refine Selection Brush is smart enough to know where you are: Although it can be
hard to see, there's a tiny plus or minus sign in the center of the brush, depending on
whether you're adding to or subtracting from your selection.
Smooth . If your selection contains bumpy edges, this mode can smooth them out. Sim-
ply drag over the lumpy edges to make them smoother.
The most useful aspect of this brush is the way it automatically searches for edges to snap
the selection to (see Free Rotate Layer for more about snapping). You can control how vigor-
ously the Refine Selection Brush does this by adjusting the Snap Strength setting. Move the
slider to the right to make the tool snap your selection only short distances, or to the left if
you'd rather it snap farther. (This setting isn't available when using the brush in Smooth
mode.)
Moving Selected Areas
So far you've learned how to move and reshape selections themselves (the marching ants),
but often you make selections because you want to move selected objects around—like put-
ting that dreamboat who wouldn't give you the time of day next to you in a class photo.
There are several ways to do this, even without using any special tool, but you'll probably
want to try out the Content-Aware Move tool described on The Content-Aware Move Tool .
For now, here's the simplest, tool-free way to move something from one image to another:
1. Select the object you want to move .
Make sure you've selected everything you want—it's really annoying when you paste
a selection from one image to another and then find that you missed a spot.
2. Press Ctrl+C/ -C to copy it .
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