ok, here's a tutorial for Quick Mask mode to select round objects, specifically wheels.

first take the eliptical tool and make a circle around the wheel. it doesnt have to be perfect because we will adjust it.




next, hit the Q button on your keyboard, which will bring you into Quick Mask mode. by default, the area that is selected will be visible, and all other areas will have a transparent red layer over them.

but i find it much easier to reverse that, and make the selected areas red.

to do that, you must double click on the Quick Mask button in the tools window (the one on the right that the arrow is pointing to)



doing this will bring up a menu. we want to select "Selected Areas" then hit Ok.





now isnt that better?

ok, now that that is done, we can get to work on making the selection.

(FYI, once you make the change to Selected Areas, you wont have to do those steps again unless Photoshop resets it default settings.)

while in Quick Mask mode, you can change the shape of a selection without distorting the image with it, which you cant do in normal mode.

so now hit Ctrl+T (Free Transform mode) or you can go to Edit > Free Transform.

after you do that, adjust your points so that the red area covers the whole wheel.

i find it easier to use the stretch/skew tool in Free Transform ( when adjusting the points, do not use the corner points, and hold down the Ctrl button).



see, now that wasnt so bad.

now that you have the area that you want selected, and all minor tweaking is finished, you can go ahead and hit the Q button again, and it will bring you back to normal mode, with your "dashed" selection.

 

 

[>:]

 

Good write-up...should sticky these to the tutorials section.

 

yeah maybe... after these usless posts get removed

 

[>:]

 

Stickied