Another powerful selection tool is the magic wand tool. This tool can create selections automatically by choosing a region or regions of an image that have strong colour similarity.

 

To use the magic wand tool, first select it from the tool box, and adjust the options in the options bar as you require.

 

 

 

When the wand is selected, just click in the image to make a selection based on similar colour. The selection you create will depend on where you click, and on the amount of colour variation in the image. When you click on a spot, a region of pixels that have similar colour (within a specified tolerance) to the spot you click on will be selected.

 

There are some interesting options for the magic wand tool available in the options bar.

 

 

 

 

In the tolerance box, you can enter values that control how similar (in colour) regions have to be to be selected. The higher the number, the less colour similarity is required for a selection. . If the Contiguous box is checked, only adjacent pixels of similar colour will be selected. If you check the Use all layers box, the information from all visible layers will be taken into account for the selection.

 

Here is an example selection made with the magic wand tool.