The new feature was designed to accelerate your selection workflow and works precisely even in complicated backgrounds
Our instructor and expert Adobe trainer, Sharon O’Neill has a famous line that she frequently tells her students in a class. “In photoshop, if you rule selections you rule the world because once you can accurately select something you can do anything with it, and that goes for all levels of user, beginner to advanced”. It seems that Adobe has finally listened to her and the Photoshop 2020 version has a new object selection tool, which will make your design live much easier.
The great thing about the new tool is that works fine even in complicated backgrounds, which means it is also a time saver for more experienced professionals. It can speed up your workflow and accelerate processes.
How to Use the New Object Selection Tool
The new Object Selection Tool is in the Select and Mask dialog.
Go to the → Select menu → Select and Mask → and then you will find → Object Selection. Is in the toolbar on the left.
The keyboard shortcut for it is W.
Be aware that if one of the other tools in that slot was previously active, click and hold on the tool's icon until a fly-out menu appears, and then choose the Object Selection Tool from the menu, as below:
There are two different options (Rectangle and Lasso) for tracing around a subject or object. You are probably familiar whit them. The rectangle will allow you to make a rectangular marquee around what you want to cut out and Lasso allows you to draw freehand for a little more precision. Then you just need to click and drag around the object you want to extract.
What we could see from the tests done is that the tool works well and precisely, even using the rectangle option. So, you better try both to see how it will perform.
Some of the Extra Options
Object Subtract is probably the most important feature that you need to always leave it on. It is the option that allows Photoshop to use its advanced Object Selection technology when subtracting unwanted areas from the initial selection.
When Object Subtract is turned off, the Object Selection Tool behaves just like the standard Rectangular Marquee or Lasso Tool, which we do not want.
Sample All Layers: by default, the Object Selection Tool looks for objects only on the active layer. But if you want your selection to be based on a composite of all layers in your document, then turn on Sample All Layers. In most cases, the best option is to leave it off:
Auto-Enhance adds a slight amount of smoothing to the edges of the selection. The difference with Auto-Enhance on or off is minimal.
How to Select Objects
Once, you have selected the Object Selection Tool, you can start drawing a selection around the object that you wish to cut out. As we previously said the rectangle works most of the time precisely. Accordingly, to your image, you might need to use the lasso tool to be more precise and refine some details of the image you are cutting out, but at this point, the bigger part of the work will be done.
Watch the Video Below from Adobe to See the New Tool in Action
Then, it is your time to get creative and make the most of you Photoshop Designs.
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*Sources for the above article:
- https://theblog.adobe.com/
- https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/4/20943796/adobe-photoshop-object-selection-tool-cloud-psd-update
- https://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/object-selection-tool/