We’re two weeks into the new year and as usual a lot of people are psyched up for a bigger, better year – especially after all that went on in 2024.

I love fresh starts. Whether you’ve made resolutions, set goals or intentions, or you’ve simply gotten back into normal activities after the holidays, one thing seems to be on everyone’s mind – GO!

It’s a new beginning and in order to start, we just have to go. It’s a useful, motivating word when you want to start anything. However, I have another one to add to it – SLOW. Yes, go, but take your time, GO SLOW.

I recently discovered a song by Danny Gokey that helps remind me that I don’t have to work so fast all the time. It also speaks to seeking stillness in God’s presence. If we don’t take some time to breathe, we’ll collapse. It’s impossible to find fulfillment in constant busyness. I’d encourage you to take a listen to “Slow Down”.

Given that advice to slow down, I thought I’d take a few weeks to ease into tips for this year. So, for the next few weeks I’m going to be giving you some quick & simple tips.

Modify A Selection

Over the last couple years, I’ve written multiple posts that involve making a selection in Photoshop Elements (PSE). It hit me the other day that I’ve never shown you how to modify a selection once it has been made. And I’m not talking about “refining” the edges, adding to or subtracting from the selection. This is more about resizing your selection.

Note: Reminder, I use PSE 2024. If you use an older version, some of my screen shots may look different than what you see on your screen.

I’m going to start with this hot air balloon photo from Pixabay:

I then make a selection around the balloon. When I zoom in really close, I can tell that the selection did not go completely to the edge of the balloon:

There are other spots that will need some refining but right now, I’m more interested in the balloon edges themselves.

Expand/Contract Your Selection

With the current selection of the balloon made, all I have to do is go to the top tool bar and click Select->Modify:

You can see there are 4 options. Today I’m only going to talk about Expand and Contract.

Since I want the selection to contain more of the balloon’s edge I will click Expand. PSE then opens the Expand options box:

For me the Expand By value showed up at 40 pixels. I am not certain if this is a default so it may reflect something different for you.

If I hover my cursor over the colon where it says Expand By, the cursor changes to what I call the size slider icon which looks something like this:

If I now click and drag my cursor to the right, the number (40) will increase. If I click and drag my cursor to the left, that number will decrease. Sadly, PSE does not provide a “preview” of the modification as I’m dragging. So, that means I really have no idea how big/small the change will be until I confirm the expansion by clicking OK.

In most instances, it’s easier if I just set the Expand By value to something very small such as 2 and then click OK just to get started:

That actually looks pretty good. I can now do whatever additional modifications are necessary before I create a copy of this selection, or apply any other effects (colorize, blur, adjustment filter, etc.) to the selection.

I’m sure you can guess that by clicking Select->Modify-> Contract, I can make my selection smaller:

For this example, I’m going to go with the Contract By value (20) that displayed for me. And here’s how that turned out:

Using either Expand or Contract is a quick way to select more or less of your image without having to use some of the other selection tools. In most cases with the primary selection modified using this method, you may still need to make other additions/subtractions to completely refine the edge. But this option should give you a good head start.

But if you are making a selection around a relatively simple shape this may be all you need to do.

Some Additional Tips

Using this method to expand your selection can come in really handy if you’re trying to create a shadow on its own layer. If you’re not sure how to do that refer back to my “Stitching Realism” post when I explained how to put shadows on a separate layer.

Using Contract is a great way to eliminate fuzzy edges around your selection or even remove a border that may be around the selected image.

Thanks for reading this week’s Tuesday Tip. Remember, if you have any suggestions or questions please don’t hesitate to “Message Me“. Check back next week with another tip using “Select->Modify”! Click “Follow Me” to stay in touch. I hope you have a wonderful week!