Hi,
I am designing a catalog however the photos have a background, for
example the pictures are of shoes but i can see the table the shoe is
sitting on and the background behind the shoe, is there a way to cut
the shoes out in Photoshop so the background is removed?
Thanks
For max precision nothing beats the Pen tool, but if you don’t want to go that route the lasso tool does the trick. Select around the shoes, go to Select -> Invert (or ctrl+i) so everything but the shoes is selected, and hit delete or create a layer mask.
You have lots of methods, you can extract using the pen tool, the selection tools, the extraction tool, but my personal favorite is the “Quick Selection Tool” once you know how to use it you’ll find it’s extremely fast and reliable at what it does, and helps you extract without fringes very much more rapidly than using paths.
Is it on a plain background?..With enough contrast from the thing you want to cut out? If it is, there is a really effective and quick way I know of removing the background.
If the background is not plain. E.G it wasn’t shot against a backdrop, then the methods already advised are suitable. I’d usually just use polygonal lasso tool, on a high res image zoomed right in. Takes ages, but gives ok results if you take your time. Hair can be a problem - which is why I make a point of shooting against a black or white background (whichever gives most contrast to the object I wish to cut out.
Also, don’t forget masking by painting (not just an outline created with a tool) - if parts of the object are out of focus, and you want to keep that rather than a hard edge, then you will be using a combination of anything from the Pen Tool, to the Lasso, and Masking.
If you have the back of the shoes out of focus, yet is has a hard edge in the cutout, it can look funny. If it is going to be printed small - say, 2 inches or smaller - than it won’t really matter. But if it’s going to be big where you can see changes in focus - well, you get the idea.
Hope this helps-
-Lew
This is the standard for print catalogs (pen tool), as it will allow you to save the image as an EPS file with a clipping path. This allows you to place the object in your layout program, over another image or color and you won’t need to worry about transparency issues when you go to print. The other advantage to the good old EPS file is that it will use a LoRes preview so as not to weigh down the file you are creating, which if it is a catalog can get heavy quickly with many pages and images.
-Jim
Yeah, there are so many ways to do this but for me it depends on the image itself. If there is quite a bit of contrast between the subjects/items that you want to cut out then using the selection tools is a good way to go. If not, like what was stated before, the pen tool can be your best friend. Or the masking out of the area you want to delete.
Honestly, for me, if I’m really concerned about it looking good with clean edges then I use the pen tool every time. You may spend more time on it but in the end it’s worth it.
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