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Dan Rodney/2 min read

Product Shot: Selecting the Glass

Select the Tumbler Glass + Lemons

1

Pen Tool Path for the Tumbler

Draw a path around the tumbler glass; name it 'tumbler glass' in the Paths panel.

2

Create a New Alpha Channel

Channels panel → New Channel; set Color Indicates: Selected Areas.

3

Paint the Lemons Selection

Show composite RGB and paint the top half of the lemons; sloppy is OK below the bottle.

4

Save Each as a Named Channel

Clear naming saves time when you load these selections later for color correction.

Master Photoshop at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop's Photoshop Bootcamp covers retouching, compositing, color correction, and pro editing.

Delve into an advanced Photoshop tutorial, learning how to make selections using channels and paths, with a hands-on exercise focused on selecting lemons and glasses in an image.

Topics Covered in This Photoshop Tutorial:

Making Selections Using Channels, Making More Selections Using Paths

Exercise Preview

product lemon and glass

Exercise Overview

In this exercise, we will select the lemons and the bottle’s glass, saving the selections as channels. We will also select the tumbler glass and save it as a path.

Selecting the Tumbler Glass Using a Path

  1. If it’s not still open, re-open yourname-product-Adobe RGB.psd.

  2. Make sure no paths are selected.

  3. Use the Pen tool pen tool to draw a path around the tumbler glass at the bottom right.

  4. In the Paths panel, name the path tumbler glass.

  5. Deselect the path by hitting Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows).

Selecting the Lemons

  1. Go to the Channels panel and click the Create new channel button new button.

  2. Double–click anywhere on the new channel (except on the name) and:
    • Name it lemons
    • Under Color Indicates: select Selected Areas.
    • Color: choose a bright lime green.
    • Opacity: 50%
    • Click OK.

  3. With the lemons channel still selected, show eye hide show icon the composite RGB.

  4. Paint a selection for the top half of the lemons near the bottle. You don’t need to worry as much about the bottom half. The important part is where the lemons are covering the bottle.

  5. When done painting the lemons selection, hide eye hide show icon the lemons channel.

Selecting the Glass of the Bottle

  1. Go to the Paths panel and load the bottle path as a selection by Cmd–clicking (Mac) or CTRL–clicking (Windows) the path thumbnail.

  2. In the Paths panel, click once on the label and cap path.

  3. Go to the Paths panel menu panel menu and choose Make Selection.

  4. In the dialog box that appears, choose:

    Feather Radius: 0
    Anti-aliased: Check it on
    Operation: Subtract from Selection

  5. Click OK.

  6. In the Paths panel, Cmd–Opt–click (Mac) or CTRL–ALT–click (Windows) the tumbler glass path thumbnail to subtract it from the selection.

  7. Go to the Channels panel.

  8. Subtract the lemons channel by Cmd–Opt–clicking (Mac) or CTRL–ALT–clicking (Windows) it.

  9. Go to Select > Save Selection to save the selection as a new channel.

  10. Name the new channel bottle’s glass and click OK.

  11. Get rid of the selection (Cmd–D (Mac) or CTRL–D (Windows)).

  12. Save the file and leave it open. You’ll continue to work with it in the next exercise.