Lasso/Selection help

[efiste2]

Always wanted to blur backgorunds or alter the colour of etc etc, but I always struggle with the lasso or selection tool, eg the attached "screen cap" pic that was kindly sharpened up and edited by a member of this group, how do I accutately select just the car for example, or in another picture, a person. My attempts using the QUICK SELCTION TOOL end up with pieces missing or a chunk of background selected. Once I can grasp the selection part, Im confident how to alter the background using layers etc etc. Many thanks for any advice

 

[thebestcpu]

Hi efiste2
There are many ways and tools to make selections and I bet other forum members will jump in with suggestions.
I have found that the most accurate yet also with a learning curve is to use the Pen Tools and convert the created association Path into a selection.
Here is a link about the Pen tools followed by a link on converting between Paths and Selections

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/editing-paths.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/converting-paths-selection-borders.html

 

[IamSam]

Making selections in Ps is a skill that's learned over many years of trial and error. The Lasso Tool is not a very controlled manner in which to make accurate selections. Even though the Quick Selection Tool might be considered and entry level tool, it's much better suited for making selections than the Lasso Tool is and combined with Select and Mask, you can get a near perfect selection.

Here is a nice selection made with the Quick Selection Tool that only took about 30 seconds.


The selection is then converted to a layer mask.
A blurry duplicate image layer below.....(which is converted to a smart object and a smart Gaussian Blur filter added so it can be easily edited!)
The whole process took about 2 minutes or less.



The proper techniques for making selections can change depending on the image. But as John mentions above, after all my years of experience, I almost always use the Pen Tool or a combination of the Pen Tool, Brush Tool, and alpha channel selections combined when I want positively accurate selections. I reiterate, it depends on what I'm needing to do!!!

 

[hawkeye]

You can do it without making a selection using Iris Blur. You can add additional areas and vary the amount of blur to make it more realistic.

 

[MentosCubing]

I'd just like to add that if you hold the Alt key and paint with the quick selection tool, it will switch from adding to your selection to removing from it.
In this case I would just do a fully manual trace with the Pen tool, then feather it a tiny bit. The edges are soft enough in the original image that I don't think an automatic selection would do a good enough job to satisfy me. That said, if you slightly feather the result of the Quick Selection, you get a virtually indistinguishable result other than maybe a slight expansion/contraction on some edges.