MAGIC WAND TOOL

When you open the tool, there are three settings to choose from which are:  

Contiguous - if checked, the Magic Wand will only select adjacent pixels of the same colour.  If you leave this setting un-checked it will pick out every pixel in the entire image of the same colour.  

Sample all Layers:  Check this only if you want to select pixels from any other visible layers at the same time.  

Tolerance:  There are many different shades making up one colour.  This setting allows you to chose how much of a colour you want to select.  If you have a low Tolerance setting, the Magic Wand will be be very choosy and only select a small number of pixels.  A higher setting will pick out much more.

The following examples ( Figs 1 and 2 ) show a partial selection ( Contiguous checked ), and a wider selection ( Contiguous un-checked ).  Both have a Tolerance of 30.

I have found this technique useful when I have wanted to brighten up an area of colour or change it slightly.  

FIG 1

FIG 2 

Anyway, lets have some fun!

The following two examples show a clock face.  I cropped the original photo ( Image - Crop) then converted it to Black and White ( Enhance - Convert to Black and White ).  I converted the original Background Layer to a new layer ( Layer - New - Layer from Background ), this makes the image transparent behind.  I then used the Magic Wand tool to select areas that I wanted to delete and hit Backspace on the keyboard. Fig.3.

I have used this image many times and in the next two examples, (Figs 4 and 5), I have added a new a gradient coloured background layer.

FIG 3

FIG 4

FIG 5