Cropping images

[leahloy1973]

I know this has probably already been discussed on this forum but I am not sure what it is called so I don't know what to search for.

I have an image that I am using for a project. The picture is of 6 ladies standing in front of a wall with a hideous picture behind them. I need to crop out the ladies so I can put them on the front cover of the project I am working on with a solid color background behind them.

Can anyone here offer me some help? I am VERY NEW to Photoshop so I am not sure what it is called or how to do it.

Thanks tons in advance for any help offered.

 

[emkemner]

Well there are quite a few wayss to do this. The way I prefer is to first make a rough selection around the item that needs cut out with the polygonal lasso or if the objects are well defined the magnetic lasso tool. Copy the selection and paste it back into the picture which will create a new layer. Hide the back ground layer and work with either the eraser tool or the polygonal lasso tool to finish the cuttout. It's very tedious and takes a bit of time.

Some times it makes it a little easier to play with the channles and hide a channel or 2. in some cases it will make the edgse of the objects a littl easier to see. making it easier to trace.

Another way is Filter extract. Not my favorite way to do it but play with that if you want.

Im sure there are other ways to cut out images. If anyone wants to elaborate.

 

[blueark]

There are a few ways to do this. It is a two step process: Isolate the ladies, then add the colored background. The colored background is easy: One way is to use Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color. Double-click the 'ladies' layer in the layers palette (click ok), and drag it above the colored layer.

Extracting the ladies is the tricky bit. Assuming you don't want to spend more money on third party plug-ins, the first thing to try out would be the Extract filter (Filter > Extract...) This lets you mark the areas that you want to keep, and it will delete the rest. It doesn't always give perfect results though, so make sure you make a copy of the layer first.

Another way is to create a layer mask on the layer. Select the ladies layer, go to Layer > Add Layer Mask > Reveal All. In the layers palette, you'll notice a new thumbnail beside your layer. Selecting this (it will be selected by default when you create the mask), you can paint on the areas that you don't want to appear in black. This will make them transparent. It may be a little time-consuming, but you can always paint over in white to make an area visible again. That way you can always correct your mistakes. Painting with gray will leave a semi-transparent area, which is often useful.

There are plenty of other ways to achieve the same result, and depending on the image, some might be far easier. Check the online help for any of the following:

Quickmask mode
Channels
Paths
Select Color Range

As your skills develop, you'll find yourself using a combination of several methods, so it's worth practicing a range of techniques.

 

[mscallisto]

I too like the polygonal lasso and find it much easier to use if you magnify the pic first.

Click the magnifying tool then click your picture until it gets large enough to clearly see the outline you wish to capture with the polygonal lasso tool. Even if it grows larger than the window, that's ok. While clicking around the "girl" you want to select the picture will move in the diretion your clicking

Make sure the window you're working in is at maximum size.

Use the polygonal lasso while holding the Alt key down and click on points that surround the girls.

You may need to each girl separately if they're apart.

After you have outlined the girl clisk selection > save > and name the selection..."girl on left"

You can edit > cut the selection then paste it on another layer.

repeat the process for each girl.

 

[Eggles]

I would use the Pen Tool to separate the people from the background. This makes a 'path' which can be converted to a selection by dragging the path (on the Paths palette) onto the relevant icon at the bottom of the palette. The selection at this stage is of the people, not the background, so you first need to invert the selection (Select>Invert) and hit delete. This will remove the background. You can then either create a new layer beneath this layer and fill with whatever you want as your background OR select the path and convert to a clipping path (on fly out menu of Paths palette) and then save as a TIF. This image, when placed in a layout program, will have a transparent background, so you can add whatever background you want in the layout application.

Two good tutorials for creating clipping paths can be found here:

http://graphicssoft.about.com/library/extra/blrbps_4abfly.htm

http://www.sketchpad.net/paths3.htm