How Do You Combine Selections in Photoshop?
Photoshop offers several ways to combine selections, depending on whether you're working with multiple selections simultaneously or adding to an existing selection.
You can combine selections made with tools like the marquee, lasso, magic wand, and quick selection tools. The key methods are:
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Adding to a Selection: Hold down the Shift key while making subsequent selections. This adds the new selection to the existing one. Alternatively, click the Add to selection icon in the Options bar.
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Subtracting from a Selection: Hold down the Alt (Option on Mac) key while making a new selection. This subtracts the new area from the existing selection.
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Intersecting Selections: Hold down both the Shift and Alt (Option on Mac) keys. This creates a selection containing only the areas common to both selections.
Combining Saved Selections
If you've saved selections as channels (found in the Channels panel), you can combine these channels:
- Select the first channel in the Channels panel.
- Hold down Shift + Cmd (Mac) or Shift + Ctrl (Windows) and click on additional channels to add them to the selection. This combines the selections represented by each channel.
You can also achieve similar results with layer masks, as a selection and layer mask are fundamentally related. Combining layer masks effectively combines the selections they represent.
Combining Selections from Different Sources (e.g., Masks, Paths)
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Using Layer Masks: If your selections are represented by layer masks, you can combine them by stacking layers and adjusting blending modes or by selecting the masks themselves. Ctrl+click (Cmd+click on Mac) a layer mask thumbnail to load its selection. You can then combine these selections using the methods described above.
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Using Paths: In the Paths panel, hold down Ctrl (Cmd on Mac) and click the thumbnails of multiple paths to select them. This loads their outlines as a combined selection.
By employing these techniques, you can efficiently combine your selections in Photoshop to achieve your desired image manipulation.
