Newbie: Elliptical marquee tool
charles
on the Elliptical marquee tool. How do I resize it to correctly fit
the area that I am trying to select? Right now I am starting above and
to the left of the graphic and dragging out the tool in order to
select an oval shaped graphic. That never seems to work and it is
frustrating not knowing the correct way to do this. Thanks very much.
Also, I am using Photoshop CS3.
John Stafford
<5f514fc2-3854-4958...@v6g2000yqf.googlegroups.com>,
charles <charles....@gmail.com> wrote:
Menu: select - transform selection
Sam
"charles" <charles....@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:5f514fc2-3854-4958...@v6g2000yqf.googlegroups.com...
I'm assuming you're trying to mask a circular or oval shaped object, and are
struggling to know where to start the eliptical marqee tool in order to fit
the shape?
Well, I'm not sure if this is the correct way to do it, but one method that
works for me is to drag two guides onto the document. One vertical and one
horizontal.
You do this by simply clicking onto the ruler at the top or the left of the
image and dragging it in onto the image.
Align the horizontal guide with the top edge of the shape, and align the
vertical one with the left hand edge of the shape.
Now go to the intersection point of these two guides and use that as the
starting point for your eliptical marquee.
Like I said, I don't know if this is the reccomended or most efficient way
of doing this. It's just a technique that works for me.
If anyone knows a simpler or more efficient method, I'd be interested to
learn it too.
Grinder
It is a little weird that you start dragging at the corner of the
rectangle that would enclose the ellipse, and not actually on the
ellipse itself. It would be even harder to control, though, if the
latter were the case.
John's suggestion to drag out your selection, approximately, then use
transform selection is a good approach. Other things that might help:
1) You can use the Info tab to determine coordinates for one of the
corners by putting your cursor at the top, then left side of your
desired selection area. Then, move over to those coordinates and start
dragging.
2) If you don't need that precision, just get an area dragged out that's
about the right size, and you can nudge it into place with the arrow keys.
mike
@v6g2000yqf.googlegroups.com>, charles....@gmail.com says...
since PS7, I think that the 'space-bar' will solve your problems as
follows:
Use the left mouse to approximate the ellipse you want, now _without_
letting go of the mouse button, hold down the space key and you can drag
the ellipse around without changing its shape. Position more accurately
and then if you can release the space-bar you can improve the shape by
dragging again. As long as you don't release the mouse you can repeat
the process - spacebar-drag to reposition, no-spacebar-drag to reshape.
I find it a very natural and intuitive process.
Mike
John Stafford
mike <m....@irl.cri.replacethiswithnz> wrote:
>
> Use the left mouse to approximate the ellipse you want, now _without_
> letting go of the mouse button, hold down the space key and you can drag
> the ellipse around without changing its shape. Position more accurately
> and then if you can release the space-bar you can improve the shape by
> dragging again. As long as you don't release the mouse you can repeat
> the process - spacebar-drag to reposition, no-spacebar-drag to reshape.
> I find it a very natural and intuitive process.
Most excellent tip, Mike. Thanks for that.
Sam
"John Stafford" <nh...@droffats.ten> wrote in message
news:nhoj-F4B129.0...@news.supernews.com...
Agreed. Just tried it and it works beautifully.
Bob LaBlawgh
--
Bob LaBlawgh
�It's never too late to have a happy childhood.�
stephen68
It's simple. Make your ellipical shape. Now go to the top menu and
under select choose transform selection. You can drag the those
"dancing ants" to the area you want and make that elliptical sahpe and
size and shape - you can also rotate it to get the right position.
Once the shape is correct just click enter. Hope this helps.
Here's Johnny
Use Paths - look up the Youtube series "You Suck at Photoshop" (which is
very funny as well as informative) and the entertaining fellow has one
particular episode which shows this neatly. I am still pretty new to
anything more than the basics, so best to watch the episode rather than have
me give a bad synopsis of it.
kee...@yahoo.com.invalid
>charles wrote:
>> I use the rectangular marquee tool all the time but I have a question
>> on the Elliptical marquee tool. How do I resize it to correctly fit
>> the area that I am trying to select? Right now I am starting above and
>> to the left of the graphic and dragging out the tool in order to
>> select an oval shaped graphic. That never seems to work and it is
>> frustrating not knowing the correct way to do this. Thanks very much.
>> Also, I am using Photoshop CS3.
If you're lazy like me, use rulers, guides, and cross hairs on top left guides,
hold down shift and elliptical marquee set at STYLE: Normal. Drag down to the
right until you have it at the right size.
Or reverse above with guides set to right and bottom of where you want the
circle and drag up and to the left.
Mike Russell
>> I use the rectangular marquee tool all the time but I have a question
>> on the Elliptical marquee tool. How do I resize it to correctly fit
>> the area that I am trying to select? Right now I am starting above and
>> to the left of the graphic and dragging out the tool in order to
>> select an oval shaped graphic. That never seems to work and it is
>> frustrating not knowing the correct way to do this. Thanks very much.
>> Also, I am using Photoshop CS3.
Good suggestion from HJ re the youtube video.
Here's another way. Place guides around your object, or through the center
of your object. Turn on the "Snap To" option and the marquee tool will
align itself with the guides.
--
Mike Russell - http://www.curvemeister.com