Lasso tool

arikevin · Jan 18, 2004

I have a picture of a duck and would like to add the photo's background Gaussian Blur. I tried it but to no avail because I could see the "cutting" on the subject (in this case, it's the duck)

Anyone can give me some tips on how to use Lasso Tool effectively, for example, the subject is really well-lined out from the background?

This is the shot that I'm talking about.
the duck:

--
Kevin's Online Photo Album
http://arikevin.fotopic.net

wnor · Jan 18, 2004

There are a lot of ways to isolate the duck from the background:

1. Learn how to use the pen tool. It takes a while to get used to it but once you understand it, you will use it a lot.

2. Use a layer mask. Make a copy of your background layer. Use the lasso tool to make a rough outline of the duck, click on the 2nd from the left icon at the bottom of the layers palette to make a mask. Turn off the background layer (click on the eye). Refine your selection by painting in black or white with a paint brush (either soft or hard edged).
3. You could also use the quick mask.

arikevin said:
I have a picture of a duck and would like to add the photo's
background Gaussian Blur. I tried it but to no avail because I
could see the "cutting" on the subject (in this case, it's the duck)

Anyone can give me some tips on how to use Lasso Tool effectively,
for example, the subject is really well-lined out from the
background?

This is the shot that I'm talking about.
the duck:

--
Kevin's Online Photo Album
http://arikevin.fotopic.net

dpnew · Jan 18, 2004

Did you try feathering your selection?

You also might try selecting using the magic wand so you don't have to select with a time consuming "drawing by hand" approach.

You should also consider learning about channels, if you don't know about them already, to help you make a one click selection.

arikevin · Jan 18, 2004

I am still new to Photoshop editing. In fact, I don't really know about feathering or apply layer mask. Can you guide and help me along? =)

Thanks a lot. =)

dpnew said:
Did you try feathering your selection?

You also might try selecting using the magic wand so you don't have
to select with a time consuming "drawing by hand" approach.

You should also consider learning about channels, if you don't know
about them already, to help you make a one click selection.

--
Kevin's Online Photo Album
http://arikevin.fotopic.net

dpnew · Jan 18, 2004

Do you have a PS or Elements manual? If you do, look up feathering. I have Elements2 and it has the manual within the software--I click on Help/Photoshop Elements Help/Index and then I can look anything up.

If you don't have a manual: every tool has an options bar with some settings for the tool. One of the settings for the lasso tool(as well as the other selection tools) is "feather". Try 3 px(=pixels) and see if that helps. It makes the selection less hard edged.

You also might want to try selecting with the selecting brush--its easier. If you select too much, hold down the alt key while painting, and it will erase your selection.

arikevin said:
Thanks a lot. =)

dpnew said:

Did you try feathering your selection?

You also might try selecting using the magic wand so you don't have
to select with a time consuming "drawing by hand" approach.

You should also consider learning about channels, if you don't know
about them already, to help you make a one click selection.

Click to expand...

--
Kevin's Online Photo Album
http://arikevin.fotopic.net

dpnew · Jan 18, 2004

When you're painting with the selection brush, you can change the brush size with the right and left bracket keys "[" or "]". So, if you need to get into a tight area, you change the brush size on the fly. You can also change the image size to help you see those tight areas you're trying to select by holding down the ctrl key and clicking "-" or "+"

dpnew said:
If you don't have a manual: every tool has an options bar with some
settings for the tool. One of the settings for the lasso tool(as
well as the other selection tools) is "feather". Try 3 px(=pixels)
and see if that helps. It makes the selection less hard edged.

You also might want to try selecting with the selecting brush--its
easier. If you select too much, hold down the alt key while
painting, and it will erase your selection.

arikevin said:

Thanks a lot. =)

dpnew said:

Did you try feathering your selection?

You also might try selecting using the magic wand so you don't have
to select with a time consuming "drawing by hand" approach.

You should also consider learning about channels, if you don't know
about them already, to help you make a one click selection.

Click to expand...

--
Kevin's Online Photo Album
http://arikevin.fotopic.net

Click to expand...

Jackeroo · Jan 18, 2004

and also have PSE2 but I have never heard of the selecting brush before. Can you tell me where it is please ?

I know a lot of people recommend masking etc for selections but somewhere along the exercise it is still necessary to select along the edges.? Or am I missing something that makes selections easier ?
jack
http://www.pbase.com/jackeroo

dpnew · Jan 19, 2004

Jackeroo said:
and also have PSE2 but I have never heard of the selecting brush
before. Can you tell me where it is please ?

Well, there are a number of ways to find out. You could click on Help/Photoshop Elements Help/Index and look it up in the instruction manual that's imbeded in the software(at least in PE2). Or, you could hover your cursor over the tools in the toolbar: tool tips pop up telling you the name of the tool. In PE2, the Selection Brush tool is the third one down from the top on the left.

Jackeroo said:
I know a lot of people recommend masking etc for selections but
somewhere along the exercise it is still necessary to select along
the edges.?

Yes, you still have to paint the edges, and painting is usually easier than lassoing. However, there are things called channels in an image, and they can sometimes be used to select your whole image without doing any edge work, which as you can imagine can be very useful for subjects with extremely complex outlines. The idea is to find a channel that you can use to make your subject white and the rest of the image black, or vice versa. If you can do that, then you can easily select your subject with one click of the magic wand tool.

Jackeroo said:
Or am I missing something that makes selections easier
?

Just learning, as we all are. You can look at tone, suturation, or channels in an image to try and find something that separates whatever you want to select from everything else. I'm learning about those things in Richard Lynch's "The Hidden Powers of Elements 2".

ZMR · Jan 19, 2004

dpnew said:
Do you have a PS or Elements manual? If you do, look up
feathering. I have Elements2 and it has the manual within the
software--I click on Help/Photoshop Elements Help/Index and then I
can look anything up.

This reminds me of an obnoxious recent post from the MATLAB forum. Its author was demanding immediate help for a really trival problem:

Subject: HELP ME IMMEDIATELY!
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 19:49:09 -0500

I have
a =
1 2 3

but I want
a =
1
2
3

I have no clue and I want IMMEDIATE help.
On the vague assumption that there are probably some manuals
somewhere out there: do NOT give me advice to read a piece of paper
or a web page; firstly, I do not want to read and secondly, I have a
girl friend.

No offence intended toward anyone.

cadmandew · Jan 19, 2004

wnor said:
There are a lot of ways to isolate the duck from the background:
1. Learn how to use the pen tool. It takes a while to get used to
it but once you understand it, you will use it a lot.
2. Use a layer mask. Make a copy of your background layer. Use the
lasso tool to make a rough outline of the duck, click on the 2nd
from the left icon at the bottom of the layers palette to make a
mask. Turn off the background layer (click on the eye). Refine your
selection by painting in black or white with a paint brush (either
soft or hard edged).
3. You could also use the quick mask.

wnor

I agree with your advice ...Learn to use the pen tool. Its really a powerful Photoshop tool. Im surprised that with all the experts on this forum that it isnt really mentioned that much..The pen tool makes my extractractios soooo much easier. Lasso is okay and used properly can be useful also.

Cadman

Jackeroo · Jan 19, 2004

jack
http://www.pbase.com/jackeroo

Brian Randall · Jan 19, 2004

--

Here is my attempt. I borrowed your original photo off your pbase sight to do this with.

What I did was this. I duplicated the image first then did a gaussian blur over the WHOLE IMAGE. Then took the duplicated image and merged it on top of the blurred image then just carefully erased the areas that I did want anymore, leaving the blurred image showing through. That its.
Byron Wilkerson
Brian Randall Photography
http://www.pbase.com/brw_2909

Abbott Schindler · Jan 19, 2004

I totally agree: Pen tool.

Someone (sorry, I forget who) posted a link to a free, downloadable QuickTime tutorial on using the tool. After watching it, I've now started using the Pen tool extensively. Much, much better and more controllable than Lasso for many things, and I think the duck qualifies.

I'm sure a search in the forum would reveal the link; it was in the last several weeks.

Abbott

cadmandew said:
wnor said:

There are a lot of ways to isolate the duck from the background:
1. Learn how to use the pen tool. It takes a while to get used to
it but once you understand it, you will use it a lot.
2. Use a layer mask. Make a copy of your background layer. Use the
lasso tool to make a rough outline of the duck, click on the 2nd
from the left icon at the bottom of the layers palette to make a
mask. Turn off the background layer (click on the eye). Refine your
selection by painting in black or white with a paint brush (either
soft or hard edged).
3. You could also use the quick mask.

Click to expand...

wnor

I agree with your advice ...Learn to use the pen tool. Its really a
powerful Photoshop tool. Im surprised that with all the experts on
this forum that it isnt really mentioned that much..The pen tool
makes my extractractios soooo much easier. Lasso is okay and used
properly can be useful also.

Cadman

Hans WL · Jan 19, 2004

wnor said:
There are a lot of ways to isolate the duck from the background:
1. Learn how to use the pen tool. It takes a while to get used to
it but once you understand it, you will use it a lot.

Pen tool is great on smooth objects, but might be a little difficult to apply on a feathered bird.

cadmandew · Jan 19, 2004

Hans WL said:
wnor said:

There are a lot of ways to isolate the duck from the background:
1. Learn how to use the pen tool. It takes a while to get used to
it but once you understand it, you will use it a lot.

Click to expand...

Pen tool is great on smooth objects, but might be a little
difficult to apply on a feathered bird.

Hans

I agree ..you could select just head with pen and channel mask the rest...But there are ways to cheat photoshop and ruffle some feathers to unsmooth the pen selection.

cmd

EmjayPrice · Jan 19, 2004

Abbott Schindler said:
Someone (sorry, I forget who) posted a link to a free, downloadable
QuickTime tutorial on using the tool. After watching it, I've now
started using the Pen tool extensively. Much, much better and more
controllable than Lasso for many things, and I think the duck
qualifies.

I'm sure a search in the forum would reveal the link; it was in the
last several weeks.

Abbott

cadmandew said:

wnor said:

There are a lot of ways to isolate the duck from the background:
1. Learn how to use the pen tool. It takes a while to get used to
it but once you understand it, you will use it a lot.
2. Use a layer mask. Make a copy of your background layer. Use the
lasso tool to make a rough outline of the duck, click on the 2nd
from the left icon at the bottom of the layers palette to make a
mask. Turn off the background layer (click on the eye). Refine your
selection by painting in black or white with a paint brush (either
soft or hard edged).
3. You could also use the quick mask.

Click to expand...

wnor

I agree with your advice ...Learn to use the pen tool. Its really a
powerful Photoshop tool. Im surprised that with all the experts on
this forum that it isnt really mentioned that much..The pen tool
makes my extractractios soooo much easier. Lasso is okay and used
properly can be useful also.

Cadman

Click to expand...

--
...ƒotos by M

Canon 10D, Canon 70-200 ƒ2.8L, Tamron 28-75 DI ƒ2.8, Tamron 17-35 DI ƒ2.8-4, Canon 2x TC II, 550EX x3, ST-E2, HP 7960

dpnew · Jan 19, 2004

EmjayPrice said:
Abbott Schindler said:

Someone (sorry, I forget who) posted a link to a free, downloadable
QuickTime tutorial on using the tool. After watching it, I've now
started using the Pen tool extensively. Much, much better and more
controllable than Lasso for many things, and I think the duck
qualifies.

I'm sure a search in the forum would reveal the link; it was in the
last several weeks.

Abbott

cadmandew said:

wnor said:

There are a lot of ways to isolate the duck from the background:
1. Learn how to use the pen tool. It takes a while to get used to
it but once you understand it, you will use it a lot.
2. Use a layer mask. Make a copy of your background layer. Use the
lasso tool to make a rough outline of the duck, click on the 2nd
from the left icon at the bottom of the layers palette to make a
mask. Turn off the background layer (click on the eye). Refine your
selection by painting in black or white with a paint brush (either
soft or hard edged).
3. You could also use the quick mask.

Click to expand...

wnor

I agree with your advice ...Learn to use the pen tool. Its really a
powerful Photoshop tool. Im surprised that with all the experts on
this forum that it isnt really mentioned that much..The pen tool
makes my extractractios soooo much easier. Lasso is okay and used
properly can be useful also.

Cadman

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
...ƒotos by M

Canon 10D, Canon 70-200 ƒ2.8L, Tamron 28-75 DI ƒ2.8, Tamron 17-35
DI ƒ2.8-4, Canon 2x TC II, 550EX x3, ST-E2, HP 7960

Brian Randall · Jan 19, 2004

--

On the Tool bar just below the Text button on the left hand side though. Looks like to old type of writing tipped pen. OR, the shortcut is ctrl> p.
Byron Wilkerson
Brian Randall Photography
http://www.pbase.com/brw_2909

dpnew · Jan 19, 2004

Brian Randall said:
--
On the Tool bar just below the Text button on the left hand side
though. Looks like to old type of writing tipped pen. OR, the
shortcut is ctrl> p.
Byron Wilkerson
Brian Randall Photography
http://www.pbase.com/brw_2909

Brian Randall · Jan 19, 2004

--
DP,

I guess I'm not following you, or I just don't understand then. What do you mean at the Website? What I thought they were talking about was using the PHOTOSHOP PEN tool, instead of the PHOTOSHOP Lasso tool, and I thought you were asking "where is the pen tool located"? So, I am not sure what you mean, by on the website??

Sorry
Byron Wilkerson
Brian Randall Photography
http://www.pbase.com/brw_2909

Lasso tool

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