Monday, April 30, 2012

Photo Extractions

This is another tutorial that I'm going to show only in Photoshop, but it is pretty much the same process in Pixlr and other programs.

I'll be honest, I don't really do a lot of extractions with my layouts, but they are very popular so I thought I would show how it is done.  I apologize for not having an example though!

So, first, find the photo that you are wanting to extract something from.

Here is the one I'm going to work with today:


Let's pretend I wanted to create a layout with a beach scene but wanted it just him-not the beach in the actual photograph (I wouldn't do this-but again, we're going to pretend here!!)

before you get started, make sure the photo is changed from a background to a layer in the layer palette.  Start by zooming in at 200% and start a long one edge.  Using the polygonal lasso tool and making sure the feather box up top has been changed to 1.  Go along the edge a little at a time and then wrap back around to where you started and click delete.  It will look something like this:


Continue to do this all the way around until the immediate space around your object is transparent space:


I didn't complete finish because his curls began to make it extra time consuming!  But I think you get the point!  Once it is done, you just erase the rest of the background and you have an image to use however you want for your layout!

2 comments:

  1. Lol, the hair is always the hardest part for me!

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  2. Thank Ramona!! This was a little time consuming, but it worked out SO well!

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