Draw a Circle Around a Face

by Jonathan
(Los Angeles)

Q: I have an old class photo and I want to draw a colored circle around one face.

This is a very simple and common need and yet there does not seem to be a simple way to do it: using the various tools blots out the face or results in some other unwanted transformation. There appears to be some multi-step way using layers to do this, but all I want is to draw a simple circle. Is this possible?


A: Hey Jonathan, It's actually pretty easy to do in Photoshop Elements. Just follow these easy steps:

1. Choose the Elliptical Marquee tool from the Toolbox by clicking on it. It may be nested under the Rectangular Marquee tool so just click and hold on the Rectangular Marquee and you will be able to select it.
2. Drag diagonally with the Elliptical Marquee to make a selection around the face you want. If you want to draw a perfect circle hold down the Shift key as you drag.
3. Go up to the Edit menu and choose Stroke (Outline) Selection…. In the Dialog box that appears you can choose the color and width of the line, as well as some other options you can try. Click OK and waalaa, you have your circle.

I hope that does it for you.
Good luck,
Rick