THE PHOTOSHOP CS2 HELP DESK BOOK [Electronic resources]

How do I control the Magic Wand? Sometimes I cannot get the Magic Wand to work the way I want. How can I improve its performance and have more control over what it selects?

There are three factors that determine how large an area the Magic Wand (W) selects:

The Tolerance you choose in the Options Bar (the higher the number, the wider the range of colors it selects).

Where you clickclicking on different pixels will affect the selection.

Settings for the Eyedropper tool. If the Eyedropper is set to 3 by 3 Average rather than Point Sample, you will get different results from the Magic Wand.

How do I increase the area selected by the Magic Wand? I've made a selection with the Magic Wand, but it's not quite large enough. Is there a quick way to add more areas of color to the selection?

There are a couple of options:

Hold down the Shift key and click with the Magic Wand (W) on the additional areas you want to select.

From the Select menu, choose Grow or Similar (you'll get different results with these commands, so be prepared to experiment and undo if necessary).

What is the difference between the Magic Wand (W) and the Select>Color Range command?

They're very similar in principle as they select areas based on the similarity to the color you're trying to select. The Color Range command could be thought of as an interactive Magic Wand, as you can adjust the selected area by dragging the Fuzziness slider and using the additional eyedroppers to add to or remove from the selection.