background removal tutorial

D
Posted By
dwolf
Apr 21, 2005
Views
147
Replies
2
Status
Closed
I’m pretty good with the magic wand and other tools to cut out an object (remove the background) But one technique I never learned was to soften the edges a little so the cut out image (furniture) which I will be placing on a white background looks natural. I don’t need shadows, just a clean cutout.. I’ve played with feathered edges but never really understood them…. Can someone give me some pointers or point me to a webpage that will help.. thanks Joel
Related Tags
background remove tutorial

How to Improve Photoshop Performance

Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!

G
george
Apr 22, 2005
"dwolf" wrote in message
I’m pretty good with the magic wand and other tools to cut out an object (remove the background) But one technique I never learned was to soften
the
edges a little so the cut out image (furniture) which I will be placing
on
a white background looks natural. I don’t need shadows, just a clean cutout.. I’ve played with feathered edges but never really understood them…. Can someone give me some pointers or point me to a webpage that will help.. thanks Joel

Check out Katrin Eismann’s book, Photoshop Masking & Compositing. It sounds to me
like that is the info you are looking for.

George
M
misha3d
Apr 22, 2005
I never bought a book and learned it myself…
The magic wand is not a tool of first choice when it comes to remov the background, at least not for me. I used it when I started Photosho but I learned better techniques.
You might want to use the polygonlasso for mostly straight edges or th path tool to draw curved edges.
Later you can convert the path into a selection.
The feathered edge size depends on the size of your image. If you have for example an image with 800 x 600 pixels and you furniture takes most of the space of it, you might want to use feather value of 2 pixels.

If you have Photoshop CS, try out the extraction filter. This one wil help fast if you have a good contrast between background an foreground.

Hope that helps..

—
misha3

I constantly have the ideas, but I hardly have the time to bring it al to paper or screen..
———————————————————— ———– misha3d’s Profile: http://www.cghaus.com/forums/member.php?userid=12 View this thread: http://www.cghaus.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1424

How to Improve Photoshop Performance

Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections