How do I delete the background in pictures?

TT
Posted By
Torgeir Toft Engerud
Aug 8, 2003
Views
517
Replies
14
Status
Closed
I make basketball-wallpapers with my Adobe Photoshop 7.0 and then I have to delete the background around the mens that I shall make of, but I have a problem!
I have to get a quicker way to delete the background, cause now I’m using the history brush tool and it takes 2-3 hours of good working to make it good with that tool, so if anybody can help me with a better, quicker or easyer way to delete the background write about it here.
Write what tools you use and how you use it.
A good description of how you use it had been fine!

Torgeir Toft Engerud
Photoshop newbie!
Related Tags
background delete how picture

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P
Phosphor
Aug 8, 2003
As with anything in Photoshop there are always more than one way to do anything. Try these things…

Extract (under filters)

Quickmask

If the background’s quite plain:

The magic wand tool

The background eraser tool

All of these tools will be explained in your manual- if you look them up you should find one which will help you speed up your workflow!
TT
Torgeir Toft Engerud
Aug 8, 2003
Thanx!
Any one else that have some ways to do it?
TD
Thee_DarkOverLord
Aug 8, 2003
Helens covered it all Torgeir, but what you could do, is start with one image, rub away the back ground with a large rubber tool, with soft edges., then multi paste this image to create you wallpaper, that way you only have to remove the background once on a lot smaller area.

Dont bother with the manual a pack of lies (;-))
DM
dave milbut
Aug 8, 2003
rub away the back ground with a large rubber tool,

even the eraser!
TD
Thee_DarkOverLord
Aug 8, 2003
That would be what you call it over there, and what adobe choose to call it, not what we would call it over here.

I have lost my US dictionary 😉
DM
dave milbut
Aug 8, 2003
just watch your language young man!

an eraser is not the first thing that comes to mind when you call something a rubber in the US. 🙂
TD
Thee_DarkOverLord
Aug 8, 2003
aha profalatic, isnt that what you yanks say?
DM
dave milbut
Aug 8, 2003
isnt that what you yanks say?

no, we say rubber.

fin. 🙂
DM
dave milbut
Aug 8, 2003
Wow, you beat me to the gutter.

I’m short.
K
knielsen
Aug 8, 2003
Torgeir Toft Engerud, I do knockouts of product photos professionally, often they are very complex. There is only one way to get good results that I have found and have used for the last 15 years: The Pen Tool.

Once you discover it’s abilities, the pen tool will become the most valuable tool in Photoshop for you. Take a few weeks to get comfortable with making paths around objects then you will see what it is about. There is only one way to learn it and that is to pull a lot of handles.

1. create a new path in the paths palette and keep it highlighted.

2. select the pen tool and choose the right-most box in the options bar at the top of the screen for the type of path you will need.

3. begin drawing a line around the object (person) you want to knock out.

4. select ‘clipping path’ in the paths palette options

5. save as eps

When you place this image in an illustration or page layout application it will show with no background. Command (or control – Windows) clicking the path will also turn the path into a selection which will be just as exact as the path you have drawn, so you can use that method too, using cut and paste into another image, or, select ‘inverse’ and change the background into the color you have selected for bacground color.

Paths are versatile, accurate, and can be changed after you make them – very cool.
EP
Eric Purkalitis
Aug 9, 2003
Hmmm, I use clipping paths only as a last resort. Only when the image has to go into a page layout program which doesn’t support transparancy (like pagemaker) and I can’t fake it by compositing a foreground image over a background. Clipping paths are so tedious to make, they don’t offer different levels of transparency and they don’t even work for gifs.

I remember when they were just about the only option on the block, but that’s been quite awhile.
S
Stroker
Aug 9, 2003
For most things, my personal favorite is a layer mask and painting. With out whispies, I can do a subject in a few short minutes.

Pen, as mentioned by Ken, is a very good route to take. Steve uses Pen tools in a production environment as well, and he wrote a tutorial on it: Intro to Pen < http://www.gurusnetwork.com/tutorials/photoshop/pen1intro.ht ml>

If your background isn’t too busy, you can also try the Channel route. See Replacing a Background < http://www.gurusnetwork.com/tutorials/photoshop/replacebg.ht ml> and Whispies < http://w3.chrlmi.cablespeed.com/~halmich/tech-slop/whispies/ index.shtml>.

Extract and Eraser tools are destructive. I recommend How to not be destructive with data and save your sanity <http://faq.ozoneasylum.com/1020/rating/>.

play.fiddle.learn
Y
YrbkMgr
Aug 10, 2003
I happen to agree with Ken for complex knock outs that have to be dead on. BUT… it’s no faster than doing what Torgeir is doing now. It takes just as long to do the pen tool as the "rubber" <grin>.

The biggest problem that you have, which we all know, is the variable background. If your background is white only, easy peasy lemon squeezy. But if it’s complex, like a B-Ball player on court, it gets trickier.

I think the Extract Filter is very undersold and thus not talked about much. Check out this most excellent quicktime movie showing cool way to use the extract filter.

<http://www.russellbrown.com/tips/photoshop.html>

Russell Brown, as usual, does an excellent job of selection "acrobats" that may be just what you’re looking for.

Peace,
Tony
W
whozit
Aug 10, 2003
Quick and easy:
1. With Lasso Tool, draw rough outline around subject.
2. Hit ‘Q’ for quick mask, and with Brush tool and ‘X’ key to toggle painting/removing mask, paint in to edges of picture. Use ‘Z’ (Zoom Tool) to move in close for details. Hit ‘Q’ again to exit Quick mask.
3. Invert selection (Ctrl+Shift+’I’) and hit Delete.

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