Help with Photoshop removing backgrounds?

[Bob..]

I am brand new to Photoshop v. 5 and am having trouble trying to remove cluttered backgrounds from "head and shoulders" pics. I have tried magic wand. air brush and paint bucket etc. All goes well except for areas like hair-lines or edges of clothing that are always very uneven and raggard looking.

I know that One must crawl before walking and that practice makes perfect but I feel that I'm overlooking something obvious so, if there is someone out there that can tell me the steps I should take to get a Pro looking portrait of a single subject in a snap-shot it would be very much appriciated.
Thanks in advance~ Bob..

 

[joon park]

Hi Bob,

Manually getting fine hair and other fuzzy objects removed from the background is

not easiest thing to do. You can try and upgrade to PS 5.5 which has a way of doing
it some what automatically. There's also a plug-in from corell called Ultimate

Knockout. If you don't want to do either then get used to viewing individual color
channels and finding the channel with the most constrast. Duplicate it onto an
alpha channel and use the curves function to make a mask. It becomes easier if
you plan ahead and have the person in front of a solid background. There's
obviously a lot more to this so get yourself a book on photoshop. There are

hundreds. The most I learned from on this subject is the Photoshop 3: Knock Their

Sock Off! by Peter Fink published under ZD Press. Try, if they have it, and get the

one for version 5. Getting one on ver.5.5 might just show you how to do it with the
automated tools which is useless unless you upgrade.

hth,
-joon

I am brand new to Photoshop v. 5 and am having trouble trying to remove
cluttered backgrounds from "head and shoulders" pics. I have tried magic
wand. air brush and paint bucket etc. All goes well except for areas
like hair-lines or edges of clothing that are always very uneven and
raggard looking.
I know that One must crawl before walking and that practice makes perfect
but I feel that I'm overlooking something obvious so, if there is someone
out there that can tell me the steps I should take to get a Pro looking
portrait of a single subject in a snap-shot it would be very much
appriciated.
Thanks in advance~ Bob..

 

[Andrew20621]

The truth is there is no easy way to do cut outs.

I've had very poor success with Photoshop 5.5 extract feature. Whenever I use it, I get unexpected results in areas it can't handle. It loses a lot of the hair and fuzz you want as well as removing a lot of unwanted ares. Best bet with it is to make a duplicate layer and work from there.

I haven't used Ultimatte Knockout (now Corel Knockout). I've read good things about it but can't bring myself to fork over $240.

My favorite way — certainly not the fastest — is to make Quickmasks of the area I want to cut out (or the area I want to keep). It's not that hard. Large chunks can be taken out at a time and I can gauge how long it will take accurately. There are few unexpected, time-consuming mistakes to try to fix on deadline.

Switch to Quick mask (you can also use alpha channels the same way). You can get really good results and nice transitions if you use small gradient brushes, zoom in a lot and work on a copy layer in case you make a mistake. When you exit quick mask you'll have a nice path you can use to delete, hide, blur or lighten the background.

Barring buying Corel Knockout (which I can't speak for), there is no magic tool. Be patient, practice and spend the time to do it right.
Andy

hth,
-joon

I am brand new to Photoshop v. 5 and am having trouble trying to remove
cluttered backgrounds from "head and shoulders" pics. I have tried magic
wand. air brush and paint bucket etc. All goes well except for areas
like hair-lines or edges of clothing that are always very uneven and
raggard looking.
I know that One must crawl before walking and that practice makes perfect
but I feel that I'm overlooking something obvious so, if there is someone
out there that can tell me the steps I should take to get a Pro looking
portrait of a single subject in a snap-shot it would be very much
appriciated.
Thanks in advance~ Bob..

 

[Jonas "Popqorn" Rosén]

Hi...

Extensis Mask Pro 2.0 ... there you have your medicine!
A really wonderful tool...

Don´t now what it costs but you can download the Demo and search for the magic key on astalavista.com
Try it!...

Jonas

I am brand new to Photoshop v. 5 and am having trouble trying to remove
cluttered backgrounds from "head and shoulders" pics. I have tried magic
wand. air brush and paint bucket etc. All goes well except for areas
like hair-lines or edges of clothing that are always very uneven and
raggard looking.
I know that One must crawl before walking and that practice makes perfect
but I feel that I'm overlooking something obvious so, if there is someone
out there that can tell me the steps I should take to get a Pro looking
portrait of a single subject in a snap-shot it would be very much
appriciated.
Thanks in advance~ Bob..

 

[Bob..]

Hi...

Extensis Mask Pro 2.0 ... there you have your medicine!
A really wonderful tool...
Don´t now what it costs but you can download the Demo and search for the
magic key on astalavista.com
Try it!...

Jonas

Jonas:

Located software you suggested and it does look like the answer to background removal BUT... even at reduced price $199.00.... I'll take a rain check and in the meantime I will try to be a bit more careful lining up my future shots ;o)
Thanks for your reply~ Bob..

I am brand new to Photoshop v. 5 and am having trouble trying to remove
cluttered backgrounds from "head and shoulders" pics. I have tried magic
wand. air brush and paint bucket etc. All goes well except for areas
like hair-lines or edges of clothing that are always very uneven and
raggard looking.
I know that One must crawl before walking and that practice makes perfect
but I feel that I'm overlooking something obvious so, if there is someone
out there that can tell me the steps I should take to get a Pro looking
portrait of a single subject in a snap-shot it would be very much
appriciated.
Thanks in advance~ Bob..

 

[matt]

I have Corel Knockout and it is certainly the best tool for cutting out that I have ever used. It is a stand alone program not a plugin (as someone else said on this thread). It works great for tricky things, like hair and wooley jumpers, but I found it unnecessary for more easier items where magic wand still rules.
Try this link for more info:

http://search.corel.com/cgi-bin/texis/corelsearch/search/?db=db&sufs=Any+word+forms&query=knockout

If I have done this correctly you should see 3 pics taken from Corels site, showing the capabilities.

I've had very poor success with Photoshop 5.5 extract feature. Whenever I
use it, I get unexpected results in areas it can't handle. It loses a lot
of the hair and fuzz you want as well as removing a lot of unwanted ares.
Best bet with it is to make a duplicate layer and work from there.
I haven't used Ultimatte Knockout (now Corel Knockout). I've read good
things about it but can't bring myself to fork over $240.
My favorite way — certainly not the fastest — is to make
Quickmasks of the area I want to cut out (or the area I want to keep).
It's not that hard. Large chunks can be taken out at a time and I can
gauge how long it will take accurately. There are few unexpected,
time-consuming mistakes to try to fix on deadline.
Switch to Quick mask (you can also use alpha channels the same way). You
can get really good results and nice transitions if you use small
gradient brushes, zoom in a lot and work on a copy layer in case you make
a mistake. When you exit quick mask you'll have a nice path you can use
to delete, hide, blur or lighten the background.
Barring buying Corel Knockout (which I can't speak for), there is no
magic tool. Be patient, practice and spend the time to do it right.
Andy

hth,
-joon

I am brand new to Photoshop v. 5 and am having trouble trying to remove
cluttered backgrounds from "head and shoulders" pics. I have tried magic
wand. air brush and paint bucket etc. All goes well except for areas
like hair-lines or edges of clothing that are always very uneven and
raggard looking.
I know that One must crawl before walking and that practice makes perfect
but I feel that I'm overlooking something obvious so, if there is someone
out there that can tell me the steps I should take to get a Pro looking
portrait of a single subject in a snap-shot it would be very much
appriciated.
Thanks in advance~ Bob..

 

[roger]

Hi from Belgium,

Since decades the so called "bluekey"-technique is very common at film- and TV-productions to easely cut out objects and paste them to other backgrounds. Can someone tell why this well known and rather simple technique isn't implemented in photo-editing software ?

I have Corel Knockout and it is certainly the best tool for cutting out
that I have ever used. It is a stand alone program not a plugin (as
someone else said on this thread). It works great for tricky things, like
hair and wooley jumpers, but I found it unnecessary for more easier items
where magic wand still rules.
Try this link for more info:

http://search.corel.com/cgi-bin/texis/corelsearch/search/?db=db&sufs=Any+word+forms&query=knockout
If I have done this correctly you should see 3 pics taken from Corels
site, showing the capabilities.

I've had very poor success with Photoshop 5.5 extract feature. Whenever I
use it, I get unexpected results in areas it can't handle. It loses a lot
of the hair and fuzz you want as well as removing a lot of unwanted ares.
Best bet with it is to make a duplicate layer and work from there.
I haven't used Ultimatte Knockout (now Corel Knockout). I've read good
things about it but can't bring myself to fork over $240.
My favorite way — certainly not the fastest — is to make
Quickmasks of the area I want to cut out (or the area I want to keep).
It's not that hard. Large chunks can be taken out at a time and I can
gauge how long it will take accurately. There are few unexpected,
time-consuming mistakes to try to fix on deadline.
Switch to Quick mask (you can also use alpha channels the same way). You
can get really good results and nice transitions if you use small
gradient brushes, zoom in a lot and work on a copy layer in case you make
a mistake. When you exit quick mask you'll have a nice path you can use
to delete, hide, blur or lighten the background.
Barring buying Corel Knockout (which I can't speak for), there is no
magic tool. Be patient, practice and spend the time to do it right.
Andy

hth,
-joon

I am brand new to Photoshop v. 5 and am having trouble trying to remove
cluttered backgrounds from "head and shoulders" pics. I have tried magic
wand. air brush and paint bucket etc. All goes well except for areas
like hair-lines or edges of clothing that are always very uneven and
raggard looking.
I know that One must crawl before walking and that practice makes perfect
but I feel that I'm overlooking something obvious so, if there is someone
out there that can tell me the steps I should take to get a Pro looking
portrait of a single subject in a snap-shot it would be very much
appriciated.
Thanks in advance~ Bob..

 

[GC]

It's there, you just have to know where to find it. In photoshop, it's

Select-> color range. Sample green of blue or whatever color and adjust fussiness to accomodate a less than perfect homemade blue sceen.

The same command should work for luma keying too.

gordon
----------------

Hi from Belgium,

Since decades the so called "bluekey"-technique is very common at film-
and TV-productions to easely cut out objects and paste them to other
backgrounds. Can someone tell why this well known and rather simple
technique isn't implemented in photo-editing software ?

 

[C. D. Lee]

GC: It is not clear to me as how to use Select-> Color Range to emplement a solid color background. I tried by first using Magic Wand to select the object, then Inverse followed by Select-> Color Range. All I get is a black screen. Please offer more detail. My manual is of no help on this technique.

The same command should work for luma keying too.

gordon
----------------

Hi from Belgium,

Since decades the so called "bluekey"-technique is very common at film-
and TV-productions to easely cut out objects and paste them to other
backgrounds. Can someone tell why this well known and rather simple
technique isn't implemented in photo-editing software ?

 

[GC]

I'll give it a shot. Don't use magic wand yet, until you want to do minor localized selection. Assuming you are using blue sceen:

• click Select-> Color Range to bring up the selection window
• click on the picture where your blue screen is. Unlike magic wand, all blues of similar RGB value are selected. Adjust fussiness will add or subtract to the mask.
• if your blue screen is uneven, click the eyedrop+ icon to add new shades of blue. And believe me, unless you have a professional backlit bluescreen, the first selection will not do the job.
• once you think you have the mask you want from looking at the mask, click okay.
• use selection -> modify -> expand, contract, feather to remove holes and make the mask bland better

Once you have the mask, you can delect the background and substitue anything you want.

enjoy,
gordon

The same command should work for luma keying too.

gordon
----------------

Hi from Belgium,

Since decades the so called "bluekey"-technique is very common at film-
and TV-productions to easely cut out objects and paste them to other
backgrounds. Can someone tell why this well known and rather simple
technique isn't implemented in photo-editing software ?

 

[Greg Davis23038]

One thing no one has mentioned is using the history brush. I don't think PS 5.0 had this feature. The nice thing about this tool is that you can make tight selections and then paint back in areas that you wished to keep that may have been removed. It has been awhile since I used PS 5.0, but I would guess you could simulate this feature with layers and the erasure tools.

Here is a sample of using both selection tools and the history brush:
Before...



After...



Hope this helps,

Greg

 

[Bob..]

One thing no one has mentioned is using the history brush. I don't think
PS 5.0 had this feature. The nice thing about this tool is that you can
make tight selections and then paint back in areas that you wished to
keep that may have been removed. It has been awhile since I used PS 5.0,
but I would guess you could simulate this feature with layers and the
erasure tools.

Here is a sample of using both selection tools and the history brush:
Before...



After...



Greg:

PS 5.0 does have history brush..... but... I'm afraid your talent with the tools overshadow the actual tools. Those examples are very professional!
Bob..

Hope this helps,

Greg

 

[JTGraphics]

Look into how to use the Mask Tools it will make the task a simple one

JTGraphics
http://www.jtgraphics.net

I am brand new to Photoshop v. 5 and am having trouble trying to remove
cluttered backgrounds from "head and shoulders" pics. I have tried magic
wand. air brush and paint bucket etc. All goes well except for areas
like hair-lines or edges of clothing that are always very uneven and
raggard looking.
I know that One must crawl before walking and that practice makes
perfect but I feel that I'm overlooking something obvious so, if there
is someone out there that can tell me the steps I should take to get a
Pro looking portrait of a single subject in a snap-shot it would be very
much appriciated.
Thanks in advance~ Bob..

 

[kinga]

How about creating an alpha channel and adjusting levels and then selecting everything you need to take out. If you need more details, the Photoshop 5.5 Bible explains this process very well with an example of a little girl with her hair blowing in the wind.

One thing no one has mentioned is using the history brush. I don't think
PS 5.0 had this feature. The nice thing about this tool is that you can
make tight selections and then paint back in areas that you wished to
keep that may have been removed. It has been awhile since I used PS 5.0,
but I would guess you could simulate this feature with layers and the
erasure tools.

Here is a sample of using both selection tools and the history brush:
Before...



After...



Greg:

PS 5.0 does have history brush..... but... I'm afraid your talent with
the tools overshadow the actual tools. Those examples are very
professional!
Bob..

Hope this helps,

Greg