Painting selections with the Selection Brush
The Selection Brush in Paint by Zaweba paints a selection directly, adding by default and taking away with Alt, with size, hardness and snap to edges.
Some selections are easiest to paint. A soft area of sky above a horizon, the patch of wall you want to brighten, the edge of a sleeve that an automatic tool missed. The Selection Brush in Paint by Zaweba lets you do exactly that, painting the selection directly onto the picture as you would paint colour.
Adding and taking away
By default, the Selection Brush adds to the selection: wherever you paint becomes selected. Hold Alt and it takes away instead, deselecting where you paint. Switching between them with one key means you can build and trim a selection in a single flow, painting in what you want and Alt-painting out what you do not.
Size and hardness
Size sets how wide the brush is. Use a large brush to fill big areas quickly, then a small one along the edges.
Hardness sets how sharp the edge of each stroke is. A hard brush makes a crisp selection edge, right for clear outlines like a building against a sky. A soft brush makes a gradual edge, which is better for blending, for example selecting an area of a face for a subtle adjustment where a sharp boundary would show.
Snap to edges
Turn on Snap to edges and the brush is drawn towards edges in the picture as you paint near them. This helps a lot along outlines: you can brush along the edge of an object without needing a perfectly steady hand, and the selection follows the boundary.
Leave it off when you want a selection that ignores the picture's edges, such as a soft gradient area of sky.
The marching ants are live while you paint, so you see the selection's outline building as you work. Each stroke is a single undo step. If one stroke goes wrong, undo removes just that stroke, not the whole selection.
A typical way to use it
Start with a faster tool. Use Object Selection or Quick Selection to get most of the way there. Then switch to the Selection Brush to finish: add the bits that were missed, Alt-paint away the bits that crept in, and use a smaller brush with Snap to edges along the trickiest parts of the outline.
Or use it on its own. For an area defined by your judgement rather than a clear edge, such as the bright part of a sky or the shadow side of a face, painting the selection directly is often faster and more natural than any automatic tool.
Touching up automatic selections. Selecting areas with no clear edge for local adjustments. Painting soft selections for blending composites. Selecting small details, such as a single button or a logo on a shirt, with a small hard brush.
Things to keep in mind
Painting with a hard brush and then wondering why an adjustment shows a sharp line; use a softer brush for blended changes. Leaving Snap to edges on while painting a soft area, so the selection keeps catching on details. Forgetting that Alt subtracts and adding when you meant to take away.
How it fits with the others
The marquee and lasso tools draw outlines. The magic wand and Quick Selection work from colour. Object Selection separates an object from its background. The Selection Brush is the hands-on tool that fills in wherever the others fall short, and in Paint by Zaweba it pairs especially well with them.
