Photoshop Manual: Marquee Tools

This Photoshop tutorial on the Marquee Tools can also use the 'Suffragette' image used for the Clone Stamp. If it is not still on the screen, reopen image number 02.jpg.

Press the cursor on the Rectangular Marquee Tool in the toolbox and in the pop-up menu which appears select the Elliptical Marquee Tool.
Drag the cursor across the image to make an oval over the seated figure. It might require several attempts to get it right. The moving dotted line representing the selected area is referred to as 'marching ants'.
If you touch the screen outside the oval with the cursor, the 'marching ants' will be deleted.
If you touch the screen inside the oval, then you can move the oval around the screen. Try and get it something like the example.
We want to delete the area outside the oval, which means we have to reverse or invert the selection.
Go to Select > Inverse.
Note how there are now 'marching ants' around the edge of the image as well as the oval.
If we delete now, we will get a hard edge to the cut, which won't look appropriate.
We want to soften the edge or 'feather' it, as it is called.
Go to Select > Modify > Feather.
For versions of Photoshop prior to CS3 this will be Select > Feather.
In the dialogue box type 10.
Click on OK or press the Enter or the Return key.
In the toolbox, the default colors of black over white should be in view for the foreground and background colours.
The shortcut for this is the letter D.
To reverse the two colors, press X.
To clear the unwanted area around the figure, and fill with the background colour, press the Delete key.
Now we want to remove parts of the outer area to make the image balanced and symmetrical.
Firstly, put the cursor on the bottom right corner of the frame and drag down and out. This gives us a little extra space around the image.
Continue this Photoshop for beginners tutorial by selecting the Crop Tool in the main toolbox; the letter C will select it.
In the top options bar is a small window called Resolution and with this we can set the resolution the image will be after cropping.
Our sample is 100 ppi so we'll keep it the same. If this Resolution window is empty the resolution will stay the same, otherwise type in 100 and press Enter.
Drag the crop symbol around the whole picture. The small squares, or handles, around the crop frame are used for adjusting its size.
Put the cursor on the centre left handle and move it to the right.
Now push the bottom middle handle up until the frame is symmetrical. The darkened area represents the part of the image which will be removed.
Press Enter.
The two layers need to be joined together.
In the Layers palette, there is a small arrow in the top right corner. Click on this arrow and in the pop-up menu choose Flatten image