Cropping a subject’s body outline

GC
Posted By
Gayathri_chandrasekaran
May 17, 2005
Views
3887
Replies
20
Status
Closed
Hi,
I am a new user of Photoshop. I need to crop along the outline shape of a subject ( say a baby )in the photo.

How do i do this?

Thanks.

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WE
Wendy_E_Williams
May 17, 2005
Gayathri,

Its not possible to crop to a shape but what you can do is select the shape and then save it to a new layer.

What you need to do is select the lasso tool (or anyone of the selections tools) and then zoon in close and carefully select the outline. Set the lasso for "add to" (see the boxes at the top of the screen) so that you can make the selection in several trys.

Then once your outline is complete do
Edit>Copy
Edit>Paste

You will now have the baby on its own layer.

Hope this helps 🙂

Wendy
GC
Gayathri_chandrasekaran
May 17, 2005
Hi,

I tried that. I tried the ‘paste’ into a new blank
file. I got the outline but the facial details were
not there. It was only an outline with shaded area
inside.

Did I miss any step?

Thanks
Gayathri
GC
Gayathri_chandrasekaran
May 18, 2005
Hi Wendy,

I played around a little more and now I can paste the outlines properly into a new layer.

I would like to save the layer alone as a separate .JPG file.

But I am running into some problems with that. Any suggestions? Thanks
AK
A_Kirk
May 18, 2005
You can save the layer as a jpg this way.

1). In the layers palette, uncheck all the layers, except the one you want to save.
2). Flatten the image, by choosing Layer, Flatten Image. This will ask you if you want to discard hidden layers, then say yes. The new image will be your lasso-ed selection, with a white background.

3). Then, File, Save As, and choose jpeg or jpg as the option, then give your file a name. Choose the quality you want when the window pops up, but you’ll have this new file as a jpg.

If you haven’t already, you should save the other work you were doing as a PSD. You can "undo" the Flatten layer on it, to restore the layers you originally had.

Al
GC
Gayathri_chandrasekaran
May 18, 2005
Hi,

After a few try’s that worked. Thanks a lot.
GC
Gayathri_chandrasekaran
May 18, 2005
Hi,

After saving that as a JPEG file, I would like to enhance that file as a bit with a different background design instead of the plain white. Any suggestions as to how I would do that?

Thanks.
WE
Wendy_E_Williams
May 18, 2005
Gayathri,

Once you have saved it as a jpg then it is a flattened image and you will have to reselect the outline again … its usually better to save it as a psd file (which will keep the layers intact) until you have finished working in it.

So drop back to the psd file you saved (well i hope you did) Find a photograph with a background you like then open it Do Select>All and Edit>Copy
Go back to your psd file and do Edit>Paste
You may find the the background covers your cut out figure In which case open the layers palette and drag it below the figure layer

You may also need to resize your new background … do that using the move tool.

Wendy
KL
Kenneth_Liffmann
May 18, 2005
Gayathri,
Frequently there are several options available in PE in order to accomplish a given task. If you just have the flattened JPEG available, try this:
1. Duplicate background layer, shut off its visibility
2. With background copy layer active, select the magic wand tool and click on the white background which you have identified. Hit delete on the keyboard. You are now left with transparency where the white used to be. This shows up as a checkerboard pattern.
3. Now you can apply any background which is available to you. Just for drill go to Layer>New fill layer>solid color and pick a color
Ken
GC
Gayathri_chandrasekaran
May 20, 2005
Thank you for your suggestions. I am trying to make them work. Maybe I am trying to do things the harder way. What I would like to do is this – I have several photos of a subject, say a baby. I would like to crop the different baby poses and put them on a new JPEG file with some colorful background. So to order that, I use the magnetic lasso to crop, paste to a new layer, save that layer as a
flattened image and then work on it to change the background as mentioned in the above replies.

Is this the best way or is there some other simpler method to do it. Please help. Thanks
KL
Kenneth_Liffmann
May 20, 2005
Gayathri,
1. You are apparently working with a flattened JPEG
2. If the background is not a homogeneous color, then the magic wand tool does not work too well. In my post #8 above, the work flow that I outlined to you should work on a white background.
3. If it is a mixed background, please indicate this so that we can guide you accordingly.
4. What you are trying to do should be simple, so don’t worry.
Ken
GC
Gayathri_chandrasekaran
May 20, 2005
I am unable to do the steps in Message 4) I have selected the layer in the layer palette but not getting the mesg ‘Do you want to discard..’ when I try to Flatten image from the menu option.

Please help
G
GrampaHugs
May 20, 2005
Gayathri,
Have you looked at the Challenge?
http://www.cavesofice.org/~grant/Present/index.html

What you are asking about is what I and others do often.

My work flow in challenge 119;
(1)Use lasso tool to outline subject
(2) Copy to new transparent image slightly larger than subject (3) Zoom to 400% or more & use eraser to clean up the subject (4) save as subject.psd
(5) load new background image
(6) select All subject.psd & copy
(7) select background, Layer, New Layer
(8) Paste to new layer.

You can now use the Move tool to move it around, or use the Marquee tool & Image > Transform to change the subject any way you want.

HTH,
Alex
KL
Kenneth_Liffmann
May 20, 2005
Which version of Photoshop Elements are you using? Or, are you using the big version of Photoshop?

I am using Photoshop Elements #3, and when I follow steps that were outlined in post#4 above, with the layers palette open, I click on More (in upper right) in the active layer, then on Flatten Image, and a box opens with "Discard hidden layers?" >OK or Cancel.

If you do not find this, then we have to look further.

Let us start all over again. Be sure to have the layers palette open.
1. Open picture of baby, duplicate background layer, shut off visibility of background layer by clicking the eye icon. The background copy layer is now active (blue in layers palette)
2. Select the lasso tool and select the baby by making a full sweep around the baby with the cursor, release mouse. You should now see a selection within "marching ants."
3. Go to Edit>copy
4. Go to Select>deselect
5. Go to Layer>New fill layer>solid color>OK
6. Double click on the color box, lower left of desktop, select a color – make it red for this exercise – click OK.
7. Shut off visibility of the background copy layer. You should now have a solid red work space
8. Go to Edit>paste. The baby should now be on a new, red background. You can flatten image if you want.

Hope that this step-by-step recipe will help you become somewhat familiar with the tools. Feel free to ask additional questions if you have a problem.

Ken
GC
Gayathri_chandrasekaran
May 21, 2005
Hello Ken,

Thank you for the step by step help. I tried that just now and it worked. No major problems.

The first part of your answer didn’t work for me. It worked 2 days back when I tried to flatten the image. I am using ‘Photoshop elements 3.0’ free version that’s available for 30 days now.

I haven’t yet tried the steps in mesg 12)

Thank you.
GC
Gayathri_chandrasekaran
May 21, 2005
Since I didn’t get any response for my other topic, maybe you can help me on this one too.

‘ I am a new user of photoshop elements 3.0 . I am learning & trying out the different things available in it. How do MS Digital Image suite / Digital Pro products compare with Photoshop? I am going to buy 1 of these products and wanted to get a feel from other users who might have tried all 3. Is there any extra feature in the MS product?

Thanks for your help.
WE
Wendy_E_Williams
May 21, 2005
Gayathri,

As no one replied to your original query I think you will find it means that there isn’t anyone around who has tried all three.

Wendy
TM
Tiffany_Magee
May 21, 2005
Are there simple instructions to make an object’s background transparent and is there a way to crop an object in a different shape?

I am a novice user of this software….
TM
Tiffany_Magee
May 21, 2005
Ken,

I need a little more help. I tried following those instructions and was unsuccessful. Can you provide me with a little more direction?
WE
Wendy_E_Williams
May 21, 2005
Tiffany …

What went wrong when you followed Ken’s instructions? … If you let us know that maybe we can lwork out where you went wrong 🙂

Wendy

Wendy
KL
Kenneth_Liffmann
May 21, 2005
Tiffany,

Like Wendy, I don’t know where the exercise in my post #13 failed. Please provide us with your work flow so that we may look it over.

Cropping in a specific shape configuration is most readily accomplished with the cookie cutter tool in Elements #3. This is a new tool in the Editor and has many shape options among the libraries.

Transparency of the backgound is possible, but if you print on a white sheet of paper, the foreground will appear on a white background. Are you working on a web page or are you printing?

Ken

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