Elements doesn’t "do" clipping paths, so you’ll need to go to the full PS forum. You don’t say if you’re on a Mac or Windows machine, so here’s a link to the Photoshop Lounge. It’s not what you need, but there are links to the other two forums just above the list of topics on the Lounge page.
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(Hmmm. I wonder what happened that people are having trouble getting to the forums for full PS today; this is the second time today people have been misdirected. Strange.)
I am very new to Photoshop. Only one week. I am trying to put an ad together for our company. I have Photoshop 8 and am trying to use a clipping path or background erase to take the background out of a jpg image. Everyone else I have spoken with has ver 6 and they aren’t much help. Could someone please step me through how to do this? It would be greatly appreciated.
Is the image going to be placed in page layout software? Or is it staying in Photoshop?
I plan on saving the image into a EPS format and placing it into Illustrator.
Ok, then you DO need a clipping path as opposed to a mask…
Select the pen tool.
In the options bar, make sure it is set to the middle option, on the set of options on the left.
Now you basically have to draw the path around the selected object – not unlike connect the dots. If you click with the pen tool, it creates a point. If you click/drag the pen tool, it creates a point with bezier curve adjustments.
I would suggest a little playing with the pen tool to get used to the feel and see how it works.
Once I have the path, what is my next step? I apologize for my ignorance. I just want to make sure that I am doing this correctly. Can I then save it as an EPS file?
double click the path – name it whatever you want to.
then go to the path options, the triangle on the upper right of the path palette.
select clipping path. leave the tolerance blank.
save as eps, then place in Illustrator.
"The pen tool is better."
well I disagree with your disagreement : )
I prefer PS’s pen over AI’s any day of the week.
….and with the crappy preview that you’re sure to get in AI when using EPS, I would rather do the job in PS.
….add to the fact that when the image has a clipping path associated with it – that file/path can be used anywhere, anytime.
But doing it in either AI or PS is going to accomplish the same exact thing.
Oh, this is abuse – arguments are down the hall.
I agree with Jason. I had totally forgotten about that feature in Illy. It is much easier and I am pretty sure it existed in version 8. I am using Version 10. It used to be easier to make clipping masks in Photoshop and simply save them as eps files and import/place to Illustrator but not anymore-I just killed an hour trying to do it and following the REALLY bad directions in the manual and was save by Jason’s reminder. Thanks.
get it right Ma… er I mean Tim, it’s:
Neener neener neener!
Be easy on him John. Little Timmy is from NZ.
Douglas,
If you are using Illustrator 9 or later, just delete the area you don’t want and Save as PSD. (You will need to rename the layer to something other than ‘Background’ first. Illustrator will be able to Place the native PSD file and retain transparency.
If using an earlier version, still delete the b/ground then select Help>Export Transparent Image>For Print.
That will produce an EPS with clipping path.
Thanks, I will try these! Thanks for everyone’s help.
Okay, I just want to say many, many thanks to Jason, Timothy & Len. I appreciate your help. This is really cool software. I was able to clip the photo and place into Illustrator.
