Im having a hell of a time trying to extract some dude from the background of the image.

Im using Photoshop and hitting Ctrl+Alt+X, zooming in a few times and using a 5px brush and staying as close to the inside edge of the image i need to extract but it keeps coming out shitty looking.

Anyone got an easier way?

Use an image mask but do the same thing ( Paint around it ) .. what it ends up doing is painting a selection around the image.. then you switch out of image mask mode and it turns into a selection. Thats probably the easiest one to explain.. there are a lot better ways of doing it.. but they are more complicated as well.

Okay stupid question.. how do i create the image mask itself?

There are 2 buttons underneath the colour picker boxes.. one turns the image mask mode on.. the other switches back to normal mode.

So you click it on.. paint ( it will mask it in a red color if you are doing it properly ) and once all the bits you wish to mask are painted you switch back to normal mode and it will be a selection

If you paint the background you wish to remove with the red mask.. then when you select normal mode the background will be what is selected.. so simply invert your selection and then you will have the actual image selected.. then you can just cut and paste it onto a new file with a transparent background or onto whatever you are working on.

Cool found it thanks :)

You can also use the pen tool to create a selection, which can be done point to point, then you can turn that into either a selection or a mask, depending on what you want to do.

Alex

Alex,

Im trying to reproduce the first page of our Pure Bears tour layout on the affiliate program for a couple of other niches.

I actually think it might be the images im choosing though, they still seem to be coming out crappy lol

Oh well ill have Steve extract them for me instead, he at least knows how to use Photoshop lol

Create two layers in your photoshop file, which has the same dimension as your image, for ease.

With the first layer fill it with say Lime green... the second layer being your image you want to remove the background on, so copy and paste your image into that layer.

Choose layer 2 and then the brush tool from the toolbox on the right. set it to 5px from the dropdown choices (not the first one marked 5, but scroll down and choose the 2nd 5px one) this one will give you a nice antialiased edge around the image. Once selected on the toolbar at the top you have other options, namely mode: you need to change this from normal to clear.

Zoom in on the image and start tracing around the image with the brush, everything you mark will become lime green around the image. When you have completed tracing around the image you can then lift that layer without the background wherever you want and place it on any image background.

If you want any help give me a shout ;)

The way Newton explained it, is how I was taught to do it. It is quick and your final image will be a lot cleaner. :okthumb:

The best way of all to do it is actually to use the colour difference layers.. ends up even seperating hair and other hard to extract things.. but its more complicated to explain in a post then something like cutting around it with a tool or a pen :)

But yes.. all the mentioned techniques work well if done properly.