{"id":207,"date":"2013-07-21T17:07:33","date_gmt":"2013-07-21T17:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pixlrblog.wpengine.com\/?p=207"},"modified":"2013-07-21T17:07:33","modified_gmt":"2013-07-21T17:07:33","slug":"cutting-things-out-in-a-precise-way-with-the-lasso-tool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pixlr.com\/blog\/cutting-things-out-in-a-precise-way-with-the-lasso-tool\/","title":{"rendered":"Pixlr Editor: Cutting Things Out in a Precise Way with the Lasso Tool"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, we gave you some tips for\u00a0Cutting Things Out the Easy Way Using the Magic Wand<\/a>. This week, we\u2019re going to show you the more advanced way.
\nIf your image has a complex background and you are hoping to cut out a particular element of the image, you\u2019ll want to use the Lasso tool. With this tool, you\u2019ll be tracing around the object you want to cut out manually. A great example of this type of use is cutting out a person completely from an image and pasting their likeness into an entirely different image. This is very doable, but it requires some skill and effort. You\u2019re going to need to take your time the first few times you tackle this process, but once you get the hang of it, it should become second nature.
\nTwo lasso tool options<\/strong>
\nThe *freehand* lasso tool can be used to draw around an area with your mouse. It can be difficult to do this with precision using a mouse. It\u2019s much easier to do if you\u2019re using a pen-and-tablet device (although of course most people do not use those). You may instead want to use the *polygonal* lasso tool. With the polygonal tool, click and click again and keep laying down straight lines, with Pixlr connecting your points along the way. In this way, you\u2019ll be able to have finer control over what you\u2019re cutting out. Your ultimate goal is to draw a point-by-point area that closes in on itself at the end \u2014 you end up where you started and have your area selected.
\nMake a mistake? You can add to your path by holding down the Shift key. You\u2019ll see a small plus sign near your cursor, which means you can add to the selection with a few clicks. At this point, you can even switch to the freehand tool to carefully add to your selection. Place your pointer somewhere inside your selection and draw outside of the selection to choose the areas you want to add, ending your dragging back inside your selection at your starting point. You\u2019ll see that your selection has expanded to include the area you drew. This is great for capturing detail that may have been hard to capture with your first pass. You may even want to zoom in to do this kind of detail work.
\nSimilarly, you can remove part of your path by holding down the Alt or Option key. You\u2019ll see a minus sign, and you can remove areas in much the same way by drawing inside and outside of the selection area. Again, I recommend using the freehand tool to do this kind of work. And again, draw your path and end up where you started, and you\u2019ll see that area has now been removed from the selection area.
\n\"tumblr_inline_mqtc6jgiEW1qz4rgp\"
\nStep by step with the polygonal lasso tool<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Select the lasso tool from the toolbar. Check your tool options and make sure you have selected the polygonal lasso tool if that is what you are planning to use.<\/li>\n
  2. Click on a starting point in your image. Move your mouse along the path that you want to draw. Keep clicking as you go to keep laying down the path, drawing your way carefully around the object you will be cutting out.<\/li>\n
  3. Once you have drawn around the area you want to cut out and reach your starting point, click on that starting point. Pixlr will outline the area you\u2019ve selected with flashing dotted lines.<\/li>\n
  4. Copy your selection. At this point, you may want to paste your selection into a blank canvas or into another image that you have waiting. Alternately, you can \u201cinvert selection\u201d which will choose the area around your path. In this way, you can cut out the background if you choose.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    An example to get you started<\/strong>
    \nAs a simple demonstration, let\u2019s cut out this girl walking through the grass at an outdoor wedding and transport her to a wide open road.
    \n    \"tumblr_inline_mqtcpt4Bde1qz4rgp-2\"<\/a>
    \nI start by choosing the polygonal lasso tool and then work deliberately from point to point, starting at the base of her shoe. I draw\u00a0up the left side and back down around to the shoe again.
    \n    \"tumblr_inline_mqtcvdDiXi1qz4rgp\"<\/a>
    \nOnce I\u2019m back where I started, I see that the area is selected, at which point I copy it to my clipboard.
    \n    \"tumblr_inline_mqtdffMVuP1qz4rgp\"<\/a>
    \nHere I\u2019ve also pasted it into a new document to show you what that looks like.
    \n    \"tumblr_inline_mqtcywocEZ1qz4rgp\"<\/a>
    \nBut my real goal is to add her to this file of a deserted highway, so I open up that image and paste the selection in.
    \n    \"tumblr_inline_mqtd0z8BxL1qz4rgp\"<\/a>
    \nI bumped up the contrast of her layer and used the burn tool to add a little bit of shadow in there after pasting her in. I could do more to clean this up and make it look a little more professional, but it\u2019s fine for my purposes. You may want to more clean-up with your projects, but as always it depends on your goals and level of skill with some of the more advanced tools.
    \nA few extra tips<\/strong><\/p>\n