How to Use the Magic Wand in Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop's Magic Wand Tool makes selections based on color similarities.

This feature works the same in all recent versions of Adobe Photoshop: CS5, CS6, and Creative Cloud (CC).

To use the Magic Wand Tool:

1. Go to File > Open and navigate to an image. In this example, we will use an image of an eagle with a blue sky background.
2. Go to File > Save As and rename the file. This is a practical way to make sure you keep an original copy of the image.
3. Go to the Toolbar, click and hold on the Quick Selection Tool, and select the Magic Wand Tool.
4. Click and release on the area you want to select. In this case, we have clicked on the blue sky above the eagle. Most of the sky will be selected, but there may be an area that isn't if there is a gradient in color there.
5. Hold down the Shift key and then click on any area that was left unselected. Notice that while the Shift key is held down, a small plus sign appears next to the cursor indicating that you will be adding to the selection. The Alt (PC)/Option (Mac) key would produce a minus sign in the cursor, allowing you to subtract from a selection.
6. Go to the Select menu and choose Inverse to flip-flop the selected area, so now the object in your image (in this case the eagle) is selected. Inversing is a useful technique for isolating an image area that is against a solid, uniform background color.
7. Zoom in on the object and then go to the Filter > Sharpen menu and select Unsharp Mask.
8. In the Unsharp Mask dialog box, enter 200 in the Amount field, and 20 in the Threshold field. This will increase the detail in the image by accentuating the highlight and shadow. You can adjust these numbers to suit your image. Toggle the Preview on and off to see the difference. Click OK.