Sooooo, I just had the president of the company walk into my office and ask me to go through some photos and pick one for a print ad we will be doing.
I've got Photoshop CS5, but have never been trained on to how to REALLY use it.
I was just hoping for a quick tip on the best way to cleanly cut out the background. Which tool to use?
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!
Lasso tool plus a little feathering would be my choice.
Lasso>cut out selection>inverse to select the inside part you want to keep>feather 5 to 10 pixels>done
Lasso tool is very handy. You can also use the extract tool (under the filter menu) - kinda depends on the details of the photo. Usually with PS there's 2 or 3 ways to get to the same results.
If the Lasso tool doesn't work (which is a possibility if the foreground and background are similar colors) you can take the eraser and clean up around the image. Don't forget you need to duplicate the layer and work off a copy. I always save the original too in case I want to go back to it later.
Don't be afraid of the layers, you can do awesome stuff with multiple layers.
Thanks for the help thus far, giving it a shot. Just hard to get around in a program you aren't familiar with using!
If you need any help, shoot me a PM
Want to do it yourself? Use the pen tool and not the lasso. It's much more controllable and can be tweaked and undone until you have it where you want it.
Have 24 hours and don't want to mess with it yourself? Send it to theclippingpath.com. For $7 they'll create a nicely masked photo and send it back in under 24 hours. It's money well spent. They do a good job.
jg
Thanks for the link JG, once I'm done, I'll present that for the future as a "cost saving" measure.
By the time I'm done with this, the company will have spent much more than $14.
Hmmm, might have to steal JG's tip for some things at my office!
I wouldn't use the pen tool unless you have some experience with it. The lasso tool with a 1-2 pixel feather should get you where you need to be. Make sure the Lasso tool is set to feather no more than 1 pixel. If the background is white you can start by using the Magic Wand tool and refining it with the lasso tool. Once you have the background cut out, go to Layer>Matting>Defringe and use 1-3 pixel defringe to clean up the selection some more.
google "you suck at photoshop" and follow the links to youtube
Watch all of them. They are funny - but really good instruction too.
You guys never cease to amaze me. Kudos.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: google "you suck at photoshop" and follow the links to youtube Watch all of them. They are funny - but really good instruction too.
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