Extracting Image From Background for use in Ilustrator

[wjgrayson]

I'm working with Photoshop & Illustrator CS.

I have a jpg of a jet taking off from an airport. I would like to either:

A. Extract the jet from the sky background, or:
B. REMOVE the background totally that leaves just the jet.

All I want is the jet to manipulate.

Other than using the magnetic lasso tool to make a cut out of the jet, are there any other ways of doing this?

What I would eventually like to do is take the jet's shape, recolor it as a solid or a gradient, and use it as a graphic element in a logo.

Because it is an existing photo, it seems logical to start in Photoshop. Any help (or links to similar posts) would be appreciated.

 

[Dweezel]

The way I'd do it, is to use the polygonal lasso to click around the outline, invert the selection and then delete.
You will probably want to enter a figure into the 'feather' box on the lasso toolbar before you start clicking out your selection. This will prevent you getting a harsh, pixelated edge to your extracted image. Try 1 or 2 pixels to start with. The amount of feather you need really depends on the resolution of your image.

Other than that you could use the extract filter (Filter > Extract). But for something with fairly angular lines like a plane I think polygonal lasso is your best bet.

As for the gradient, once you have your plane extracted on a layer, press ctrl and click on that layers icon in the layer panel with your mouse. This will put a selection around the plane. Then drag a gradient through it.
If you need help making your gradient, type gradient into photoshop help and it describes how to do it.

Hope that helps.

 

[barehug]

You can select the jet in quite a few ways...

Magic wand, lasso tool, quick mask mode - use the paint brush to add or remove areas from the mask - If the jet is in the air and surrounded by sky you could try Select>Color Range

If its going to illustrator, you might want to trace round the plane with the pen tool(or convert a selection to a path), then clean up the path and Export the path as an Illustrator file.



Moe: It could have been a real ugly situation, but luckily I managed to shoot him in the spine.

 

[wjgrayson]

Thanks for all your suggestions. Actually, the Filter > Extract worked for my needs. And thanks for the tip on using Gradients in Photoshop.