Ezlect - The easiest way to make better selections in Adobe Photoshop

EZlect is a unique selection plug-in because you can select objects just by clicking on the object and background areas. This tutorial will show you how EZlect works in practice.

First, you load the image in Adobe Photoshop that contains the object you want to select.

Open the Select menu in Photoshop and click EZlect > EZlect .

Tip: You can also use the Filter menu to start EZlect as an extraction plug-in.

 

EZlect opens and starts preprocessing the image. This typically takes just a couple of seconds.

Tip: Because all work in EZlect is performed in the background, you can immediately start to place markers.

 

Click on the object you want to select to place the first object marker. Object markers are shown as little squares.

Next, hold down the Ctrl key (Cmd key on Mac OS X) and click (Ctrl/Cmd-click) on the background. Background markers are shown as a little cross.

Immediately after you place a new marker, EZlect recalculates and shows the resulting selection.

As you can see in the screen shot, EZlect always picks an edge between the object and background markers. In this case, everything gets selected except for a small area around the background marker above the woman's head.

 

Ctrl-click (Cmd-click on Mac OS X) repeatedly to place more background markers.

This refines the selection so just the woman's face is selected. Each time you click, the selection is immediately changed, so it's very easy to place the next marker.

Calculating the new selection typically takes less than a second for a 10-megapixel photo. And while EZlect is calculating in the background, you can just continue to place new markers.

 

Click and Ctrl/Cmd-click to place more markers until you've got the desired selection.

The image used as an example here has a complex background, which is why a relatively large number of markers is needed.

Still, it took less than a minute to create this selection because it's just clicking on the areas you want and do not want to select, with immediate feedback.

There is no need to painstakingly "draw" the edge of the object like in most other masking tools, which can take a lot longer.

 

To judge the resulting selection, click the View Masked Image button in the toolbar.

This displays the original image, masked with the current selection. In this mode, you can also continue to place markers to refine the selection.

In this case, the selection looks great, so click the OK button in EZlect to finish. There is no need for any post-processing: EZlect will close immediately.

Once you're back in Photoshop, you can for example use the New Layer via Copy command to lift the selection and place it on a new background. Or, if you use EZlect via the Filter menu in Photoshop, it will remove the background for you automatically.

Download your evaluation copy now and try EZlect for free for 30 days!

 

 
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