Expert: LizaL - 12/28/2004

Question
Dear Sir,
  I am using Windows XP I am scanning in my slides with a cannon scanner at 4000 DPI.  I am using an Epson 1280 printer.  So far my results have been completely satisfactory.  This is my problem.  I have some photos I took of a butterfly unfortunately I do not like the background I want to put the butterfly and the flower the butterfly is on on a background designed by using the gradient tool.  I simply don't seem to know where to start.  I look forward to any help you may offer me respectfully Stewart Arno

Answer
Hi Stewart,

Taking someone or something out of a photograph, seamlessly, is always a challenge. It can be done, though, and there are a variety of ways to do it.

One of the easiest and quickest is by using Quick Mask. Here's how to use this feature:

-- Click on the Quick Mask icon on the tool palette -- it's right below the color swatches, on the right. It looks like a dark rectangle with a solid white circle in it. Select this to enter Quick Mask mode.

Now choose a brush. Paint over the butterfly, making sure your brush mode is Normal, and at 100% opacity. Feel free to change brush sizes as you need to, especially when you need to get into tight areas. When you're finished, click the icon beside the Quick Mask icon to return to standard mode.

What you painted should now appear as a selection. To put this selection on another layer, use the Layer pulldown menu, and select New>Layer Via Cut.

Granted, you have to be careful when using Quick Mask; especially so when dealing with a butterfly picture, since the butterfly does have antennae you don't want to cut out. You might also find, when you're finished, that you need to clean the image up some, using the eraser tool and/or the magic wand. But this is a fairly quick and easy method of removing something from a background.

Here's a little movie I did that illustrates what I'm talking about:

http://little-works.com/all_experts/quickmask.mov

I did this pretty quickly, and wasn't terribly painstaking, but I hope this gives you the idea.


The Extract filter is another way of removing something from a background:

-- With your image file open, go to Filter>Extract, and you'll see your image in the window. Use the Highlighter tool (it's on the top left, and looks like a marker), and draw all around the part of your image you want to take away from its background. To make a really tight selection, you can adjust the highlighter brush size (under Tool Options, on the right side of the screen), and also zoom in and out to see what you're doing.

When you're happy with your selection, use the Paint Bucket tool, which will now be available as the second tool on the left side of the palette. Click inside your selection, and you'll see it fill with a solid color (whichever color is in your preferences for this filter -- you can change this over on the right, under Tool Options). You can now Preview what your selection will look like, or hit OK and go for it! Your image will appear in its own window, without the old background.

You might need to clean it up some, and you can do that with the eraser tool, and/or the magic wand tool, to select similar pixels for elimination.

This is sometimes viewed as a rough-and-ready way of taking something out of its background, but it works, and it's also easier if you're kind of new to Photoshop.

I also have an Extract filter movie on my server that might show you what I mean:

http://little-works.com/all_experts/extract.mov


Hope this helps! And if it doesn't, please don't hesitate to post back and we'll figure out something else.


Lisa