Color Range doesn't work properly in CS3

Question

Hi there,
I have a problem with CS3. Since a few weeks I can't use properly "Colour Range" feature.
Especially for bright colour the Colour Range doesn't select what I want to select. For example I want to select a bright cloud and can't select it with Colour Range. Of course I checked if there is any information or I have a burn area.
I use several different setting but I still have the problem.
I used 8/16 bit, Adobe RGB/sRGB
At Colour Range I use:
- Sampled colours
- Selection
- Fuzziness: how much I need it
- Selection preview: None
I need help...
Thanks

Answer 1

Possibly you are missing something in the way you apply this command. Here's how I use it to select patchy clouds with ragged edges and continuously varying shades of gray:
Select the eyedropper tool on the Toolbar and on the options bar set the sample size to 3x3.
Activate the Color Range command. Activate the "selection" radio button and choose "none" in the selection preview. In the "select" box, choose "sampled colors".
Set a trial fuzziness of,say,50. Click with the eyedropper on a point in the midst of the color you want to select. That's your "base" color.
Then switch to the "Color Added" (plus) eyedropper, holding the left mouse button down while dragging it over areas deviating from the base color but which you want included.
If there are non-contiguous areas with still different colors you also want to include, release the mouse and move the cursor to those areas before dragging again.
All the while, keep an eye on the dialog box display which shows what you've selected, albeit crudely. If you pick up unwanted colors, switch to the "subtract from sample" (minus) eyedropper and drag it over those areas.
When you think you've got it about right, experiment with the fuzziness slider to see if you can improve things by increasing or decreasing fuzziness.
Don't re-use the plain eyedropper unless you want to start all over again. Optionally, instead of switching among the 3 eyedroppers, you can activate only the plain eyedropper but use it with SHIFT to add or ALT to subtract.