The colour range feature works a lot like the magic wand tool. You can use the colour range to make a selection based on colour similarity, by picking colour on your image with an eyedropper tool.

 

To use the colour range tool, choose Select -> Colour Range from the menu bar. This will display the colour range dialog box.

 

You will see a drop list at the top of the box that is labelled Select.

 

You can choose to sample particular shades of colour from this drop list (reds, yellows, greens, blues, cyans, or magentas), or you can choose to select on sampled colours (using the eyedropper tool)

 

Underneath the preview screen you will find two radio buttons, one labelled selection, and one labelled image.

 

If you want sample colours directly from the image, select the image radio button.

 

Beneath the radio buttons is another drop list that allows you to select the format for the canvas where you will view your selection. The White Matte option will clearly show your colour selection in an intuitive way. As you can see, the settings for this example are sampled colours, with a fuzziness level of 66. The fuzziness number is very much like the magic wand’s tolerance number. The higher the number, the more colour can be included in the selection.

 

Clicking in the lower left of the sample image with the eye dropper tool creates the following selection.

 

 

You will see three eye dropper icons in a row under the save button in the colour range box. Selecting the eyedropper with a plus sign next to it will allow you to add to the selection by clicking other areas of the image preview. The dropper with the minus sign next to it allows you to subtract from the selection by clicking on the image preview in the colour range box.

 

If you click the OK button, you will see your selection as an animated dash region on the image.

 

Here is the selection resulting from the actions and settings just described.

 

If you click the Load button in the dialog box, a load dialog will appear allowing you to load a saved colour range. You can save a colour range by clicking the image preview to make a colour range selection as before, and then clicking the save button in the dialog box to save it in a location of your choice.

 

Experiment with the colour range selection feature by making selections with different levels of fuzziness, and by adding and subtracting to your selection.