JBaker421 has an excellent tutorial on bike extractions but we still get posts about members having problems getting their bike seperated from the background. Follow these simple steps on every chop.
Here is where we start. One jpeg image:
Step One - Go to your layer palette on the right side by default and you will see a layer named background. This is your image layer. Click and drag the layer down to the bottom of the layer palette to the "New Layer" icon and let it go. This will duplicate the layer and it will be editable.
Step Two - Click the original layer to make it active. Click your foreground color to bring up the color palette and choose a red color, click okay. Hit "ALT + BACKSPACE" to fill the original jpeg layer with red. This layer sits below your bike layer.
Step Three - Let's lock the red layer so you do not accidentally use it to edit. Make sure the red layer is active and click on the black padlock icon just above your top layer in the layer palette. Now there is no possible way for you to chop anything but the correct bike layer, it will not let you. The red layer will show through when you have successfully chopped off a piece of your background.
This is a pic of the layer palette and how it should look with only the two layers and the red layer locked:
Here is what it should look like as you chop the bike:
Your first chop - Where to start
