Removing background

[Luna]

I would like to have just the picture of a baby to put on a card. This would mean removing the background somehow. Is there a way to do this?(lol, of course there is, I just don't know how!)

[Wendy]

Hi Luna ..

Select the lasso tool (just the orginary one)
Set it to "Add to" (those little boxes up at the top of the screen ..hover your cursor above then and you will see the one I mean)
Zoom in very close using the zoom tool (it looks like a little magnifying glass)
and start your selection.
Just go round the edge a little at a time and then do a sort of circle inside the person to join up to the beginning of the selection.
Now you can pause for a moment before continuing ..
To continue just start again and you will see that you are adding to the selection.


When you have gone all the way round stop and check your selection. Make sure that all of the baby are selected.
If you have parts that need a little more adding in the use "Add to Selection" ... but if you need to remove a little then change over to "Subtract from Selection". Do this until you are happy with it.

Now do Edit>Copy then Edit>Paste
and you will have the baby on its own layer
You can then add a new background behind them.

Wendy

[Bayla]

Luna,

Another way to do it which would work if the background is plain & unfussy would be to use the magic wand to select the background, then select>inverse and Ctrl-J to put the baby onto it's own layer. I did it this way to select the dandelion for my stained glass picture in my gallery, it did a perfect selection without using the lasso tools.

Bayla

PS I meant to say that I got the idea from watching the subscriber video entitled 'Selections'

[everyxthing]

i find that you can mask a background right in to the picture by using the mask tool and masking the background right in.

[paynesphoto]

I am new to photoshop. I need to know when you take a photo and the picture you take goes over the background, you know like its too far to the left and too far to the right. I need to fill in the sides or completely delete the background and add a perfectly white background to the picture. How do you do either one?

[Luna]

The background is a bit too busy to use the magic wand. The lasso would work, but I seem to be horrible at it!
Could you give more details on using the mask tool?

[paynesphoto]

There are several ways to delete the background, but what I need to do is isolate the groups in the background. You can use the pencil, paint brush, magic brush and eraser. I need to know how to do it in one click.

[mel]

Hi there...

You could also start with a new blank file. Go to File>New>Blank File and make the background colour white. Then open the image that you want to take the background away from and move it onto the blank white file. Resize if you need to and then use the eraser tool to erase away the backgroung around the baby. When I first started with elements I found this one of the easier way of doing this sort of thing.

Here's a screenshot to show you what I mean....

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1TMfKpSMDpnuBQzOXbJ2TzBolYIWb1_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1TMfKpSMDpnuBQzOXbJ2TzBolYIWb1)

Hope this helps :)

[mel]

Ooops the image is a bit large.......forgot to resize for the web :o