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There are three simple selection tools in Gimp. They are located at the top of the Toolbox (right). Once an area is selected, only the pixels within the selection will be adjusted when any command is applied.
Tool options
Look below the Toolbox and you will see tool options that affect the selection tools. It also displays the size and position of the selection in the photo.
The ‘Expand from center‘ checkbox allows the selection to be dragged from the centre of the rectangle or ellipse.
The ‘Fixed‘ checkbox allows the dimensions or aspect ratio of the selection to be specified. Type 1:1 in the text box to select a perfect square or circle. To get a better view of the selected area, click the ‘Highlight’ checkbox so that the unselected areas are darkened.
The ‘guides‘ dropdown box can be used to show useful guides such as centre-lines, golden sections or the rule-of-thirds grid.
Free Select Tool
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For selecting objects with irregular shapes, use the Free Select Tool. In the two photos on the left, I made the red vintage car stand out by turning its colourful surroundings into black and white. This is a common trick to make the main subject stand out by toning down a distracting background.
Activate the Free Select Tool from the Toolbox. Click anywhere on the edge of the car. Move the cursor to the next point on the edge of the car and click.
Gimp will join the two mouse clicks with a straight line to indicate the edge of the selection you are making. If you encounter a curved edge, press the mouse button and drag the cursor along the curved edge. To continue selecting straight edges, release the mouse button and click on the next point.
Keep clicking around the edge of the car until you are back to the starting point. This completes the selection process.
Once the car’s outline has been traced out this way, press Ctrl-I to invert the selection. Turn the selected surroundings to black and white by using the Colors >Desaturate command.
Rectangle Select Tool
The most basic selection tool is the Rectangle Select Tool. After you activate it, simply click in the photo and drag the cursor to form the rectangular selection. The outline of the selection is a moving black-and-white dashed line that resembles a single file of marching ants. All the pixels inside the boundary are selected and whatever adjustments you make will affect only the pixels selected.
To resize the selection boundary, move the cursor near one of the corners of the rectangular selection until the cursor changes into a white triangle. Drag at the corner to resize the selection boundary.
To move the entire selection boundary, move the cursor near the centre of the selection. The cursor will appear as two criss-crossing double-headed arrows. Click and drag to move the selection boundary.
In the picture here, I wanted to place a caption over the bright green grass.
To make the black text stand out, I needed to lighten the grass. Instead of lightening the whole photo, I made a rectangular selection and lightened only the grass in the selected area using the Colors >Brightness-Contrast command.
Ellipse Select Tool
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This tool works in the same way as the Rectangle Select Tool.
Using the original photo (picture 1), I wanted to add an oval photo frame around the boy. I activated the Ellipse Select Tool and dragged the cursor around him to form an oval selection.
To make the frame, I have to fill the area outside of the oval with a light blue. I do this by first pressing Ctrl-I on the keyboard to invert my initial elliptical selection.
The area outside the selection is now chosen, while the original selection is omitted.
I clicked on the foreground colour swatch in the Toolbox and selected a light blue tone. From the main menu, I selected the Edit >Fill with FG command to fill the frame with light blue (picture 2).
To complete the frame, I made a new oval selection bigger than the previous one, pressed Ctrl-I and filled the resulting selection with a darker shade of blue (picture 3).
To create a vignette effect with blurred edges, first click the “Feather edges” checkbox in the tool options below the Toolbox.
A Radius slider will appear to let you set the thickness of the blurred region at the edge of the selection.
In this case, I choose the Radius setting of 100.
Activate the Ellipse Select Tool. Or if you want to create a rectangle-shaped vignette, activate the Rectangle Select Tool instead. Drag an oval selection around the subject, then press Ctrl-I and fill in with white or any colour you want (picture 4).
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