Selecting an object in Photoshop is one of the first skills you need to learn if you are new to Photoshop. It’s a relatively basic skill to learn and one that you’ll use throughout your journey in using Photoshop.

In this tutorial, I show you the various methods on how to select an object in Photoshop, starting with my personal preference.

Tools To Select An Object in Photoshop

Using the Select Subject Tool

The Select Subject is a tool that was introduced to Photoshop back in 2020 and I have to be honest it is one of my favourite tools. It saves me so much time when selecting an object in a picture or using it to remove a background.

To use it is really straightforward. 

Firstly, make sure you select the layer on the canvas that you’ll be working on. Click on the Magic Wand Tool or use the shortcut (M) and that will make the Select Subject button visible towards the top of the window.

Before you click on the button you’ll see to the right of the button a drop down. You’ll be given 2 options:

• Device (Quicker Results)
• Cloud (Detailed Results)

From my experience of using this tool, I’d disregard the Device option. It’s good, but for the majority of the time it keeps elements of the background that you don’t want, so you end up not getting the selection you’re looking for. 

The best bet is to use the Cloud option. This uses more power to think about the image content and make the right selection. It is worth noting that it will take a little longer (only by a few seconds) than the Device option but it’s 100% worth it. 

When I’ve tried it about 90-95% of the time it will perfectly select the object which speeds up my image editing process. Obviously, it’s never going to be perfect every time so there will be instances where you’ll need to touch up the image and adjust the selection path.

For the time you save this is why Select Subject is at the top of my list for selecting objects in Photoshop.

On the first attempt you can just see how this selects the subject this is why without a doubt it’s my favourite tool for this.

Learn how to deselect in Photoshop in 3 easy steps

Using the Magic Wand Tool

The magic wand tool is best used on objects on a plain background. To use the magic wand tool look on the left-hand side of your window look for the main toolbar and select the magic wand icon. Or you can use the shortcut (W).

Make sure you click outside of the object you want to be selected.

When you have the tool selected at the top you’ll see a tolerance scale. You can adjust this based on a 0-100 scale. Zero being will allow faint and light colours in the selection. A hundred being the most strict and only creating a selection around strong coloured edges.

In the example photo I used, I did struggle a bit due to the gradient in the image so I did need to tweak the tolerance to get as best I could but wasn’t great. So in this case I would have to go back over it using the Polygon Lasso Tool.

Which is a great segue into that very tool.

Select Objects with the Polygon Lasso Tool

If you can’t trust the tools mentioned already to make a good selection and you want it to be pixel-perfect then the lasso tool is for you. It can, however, be a bit tedious after a while with the constant clicking for each point of your selection box.

Using the Polygon Lasso Tool it allows you to be free with where your selection boundary will be. To locate the Polygon Lasso Tool look for the Lasso icon on the left or use the keyboard shortcut (L). 

There is the normal lasso tool and the magnetic lasso tool. For this tutorial, I’ll just be covering the Polygon Lasso Tool. 

There you have it, that’s how to select an object in Photoshop!

Verdict For Best Tool for Selecting Objects in Photoshop

My preference as I mentioned has got to be Select Subject it will never be 100% perfect for what we want it to do but we can’t expect it to know exactly what we want in our head. Maybe once the Adobe Firefly develops further we might be able to.