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Visual Control Over Your Selections Using Quick Mask

 

Did you know that you can use Quick Mask mode to expand or contract your selections visually? Here’s how: Create a selection (using any of Photoshop’s selection tools), and then switch to Quick Mask mode (press the letter Q). Now you can go to the Levels dialog under the Image menu, under Adjustments) and tweak the size of your selection. Moving the midtones Input Levels slider to the far left makes the selected area smaller (contracting the selection). Moving the midtones Input Levels slider to the far right makes the selected area larger (expanding the selection). The changes here usually aren’t drastic, so you’d use this technique when a small adjustment to your selection is necessary, but seeing it like this beats the heck out of guessing.

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Create A Composite Layer

If you have a multilayer composition and you
want to apply an effect to all the layers at once, don’t flatten the layers–use a composite layer instead. Hide the layers you want excluded, and press Shift-Command-Option-E (PC: Shift-Ctrl-Alt-E). A new layer will be created at the top containing a merged copy of all the visible layers.

Another option is to create a new layer at the top of the stack and make it active. Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) each layer you want to include to make those layers active, as well. Press Option-Command-E (PC: Alt-Ctrl-E).
by Colin Smith

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