This is a very basic tut. It doesn't contain all of the ways to do this chop. It contains no keyboard shortcuts, pen tool etc. It's intended for a beginner.
Below is a jpg of a bike just as it looks when first opened in photoshop (file> open.)
If you make a mistake in photoshop, click Edit> Step Backward, and it will undo. You can go
back several steps.
The first thing I do is look at the canvas size compared to the bike. If the bike fills the
whole canvas (frame) it will be hard to work on because your pic will get lost behind palettes.
Here I increase the canvas size to get more working space. I can crop it later. Image>
Canvas Size, and I increase it at least one inch if needed.
This is the result; the added white space. Your color may vary but that's another topic.
Whatever color, it matters not.
Now I begin the chop with the extraction tool. Filter> Extract, or in earlier versions of ps it's
Edit> Extract.
First I click the upper left icon and use that tool to (with the mouse) draw the green
(in this case) line around the bike.
Next I use the second tool down, the paint bucket to flood fill the area within the line I drew.
I click OK.
Everything within my lines stays, but the rest is deleted leaving a transparent background. The soft colored squares indicate that the area is clear.
Now click File> Save. You'll see that it automatically saves as a .psd photoshop file.
Your original .jpg is unaltered. You are now working on a .psd.
First I'll chop the front tire. You can use any of several tools including the polygonal lasso or
the pen tool, but I'm going to use the elliptical selector tool also called the oval selector
tool. Your call - it's what works best for you.
I right-click on the box you see on the left to get that choice. Do lots of right-clicking in ps,
you'll find lots of goodies.
There is already a tut on this tool in the Photoshopping 101 sticky at the top of this forum's
main page. It's called something like "removing grass from tires 101" so I'm not going into
too much detail here.
How I made this selection is covered in that other tut. It's here:
http://www.hdforums.com/m_2124587/tm.htm
I invert the selection so that I have the area outside of the tire selected rather than the
tire. (Select> Inverse.)
I then use the eraser tool (6th tool down on the left below the oval selector tool - looks like
a small box) to erase the area around the tire.
I might need to invert selection again and use the brush tool- 4th tool down in the right
column - to smooth out the inside of the tire. I use a small brush. When you choose a tool
its options including size appear across the top of the screen.
Before painting I use the color picker to get the tire color. It's in the right column just above
the magnifying glass (which is used to zoom in and out of your work piece.)
Here is how I'm inverting my selection back and forth. Select> Inverse.
Next I select the inside of the rim using the oval selector and the transform tool. Edit> free transform.
This is edit> cut, edit> paste and the center is chopped and replaced in a new layer.
Now I do the same to the disc rotor and it comes back in yet another layer.
Now I'm going to make a new layer. I should have done this right after the initial extraction.
The new layer is labeled "red." I drag and drop it to the bottom of the layers palette so that it will be behind all other layers.
Next I choose a red color.
And flood fill that layer with that tool, 6th tool down in right column. This is going to give me better contrast to see what I chop.
Next I choose my chopping tool.
BE SURE that there is 0 feather selected at the top of the screen. If your image is so poor that you need to feather it, you really need a better pic. $.02.
Select the layer that has the spokes. I could right-click on that layer palette, choose properties and rename that layer spokes if I wanted to.
Now with the polygonal lasso I begin to chop the spokes.
CONTINUED DOWN THE PAGE. THE NEW FORUM SOFTWARE WILL TAKE JUST 20 PICS PER POST.
Chopping (Extracting) bike from background 101
