Magic Wand

[dwphotos]

Hi,

This is my first post. I'm new to paint.NET but want to start using it for photo editing. I have never used photoshop etc and have just recently read the paint.NET documentation pages that take you through all the features.

My main question is: What does the magic wand tool actually do?

This page: http://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/MagicWand.html gives good instructions on what to do, but not why i would do this and how it can alter my pictures. It seems to highlight over exposed areas of a photo. Does that mean i can adjust these areas to take the sharpness off these specific sections?

On a second note, what other tools are useful for basic photo editing? Obviously 'Adjustments' (contrast, brightness, etc), and i have just discovered 'clone stamp' which seems great for editing out blemishes on photographs. Any other useful tips?

Sorry if this post is not laid out too well. This is only my second time using a forum!

Thanks

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Very briefly, the magic wand is used to select a region of an image.

It can be used in a number of ways, but the most common usage is with the tolerance slider +/- the shift key to select groups of pixels of a similar nature.

Once selected, a group of pixels can be altered by a process, effect or filter.

For example,

To select all instances of a given color in an image, select the magic wand & set the tolerance slider to 0, then click on a pixel whilst holding down the shift key. All instances of the same color in the image will be selected.

To select pixels within a given range and neighboring each other, adjust the tolerance slider to maybe 10% and select a pixel.

To select pixels within a given range across the entire image do the above + shift key.