The Selection tools in Capture NX may at first look a little confusing. This is where I would like to say, "but it is really simple..." That would be lying however. It is confusing. In the following, I will try to make it a little clearer.
First a rule to make life easier: Get the Selection right from the beginning.
The easiest thing is if you first select exactly what you want to apply an adjustment too. Then you apply the adjustment, and you are done.
If you make a mistake, you can always delete the adjustment and start from the beginning. You can also "revert" adjustment or selection, but that may be confusing, so wait with that until you really need it.
Now, let's assume that you have applied an adjustment, but you were not happy with the selection. You can do the following things.
Revert the selection. Once you have clicked on the revert or delete button for the selection, the adjustment will apply to the entire picture. Adding a selection again using the Lasso tools will not bring the adjustment back, but do not panic.
This is how the different tools work after an Adjustment selection has been deleted:
The Selection Control Point will add a new selection, and it will apply the adjustment to the selection.
The Lasso, the Polygon Lasso, the Rectangle Marquee and the Oval Marquee will create a selection without adjustment. The entire picture will be without adjustment. However, you can later fill in the selection using the next tools.
The Selection Brush will add a selection where the adjustment applies. However, if there is a previous selection from one of the lasso and marquee tools, the Selection Brush will only add the adjustment to areas which were already selected.
The logic of the Selection Gradient is identical to the Selection Brush. It will add a selection where the adjustment applies. However, if there is a previous selection from one of the lasso and marquee tools, the Selection Gradient will only add the adjustment to areas which were already selected.
The Fill / Remove Tool is arguably the silliest "painting" tool of all. It does not matter where in the picture you click. If you use the Fill tool (with the plus sign), all selected areas will get the active adjustment. If you use the Remove tool (with the minus sign) selected areas will not get the active adjustment, but other areas will.This is very confusing. As it does not matter where in the image you click, this should be a simple command, not a tool you have to click on twice (on the tool and on the picture) to activate.
Nevertheless, it is very useful, just like the other selection tools, once you have spent some time understanding how they work.
In the example picture above, a blue Color Balance adjustment has been applied to the following selection: Top left - a rectangle with a cut out oval. Top centre - a selection control point based on the colour of the waves. Right - an oval selection filled with a gradient selection. Bottom left - text scribbled with the selection brush in a selected rectangle.
