aligator

Please tell me how to erase the background of a picture in Photoshop 7

MsOz

What efforts have you made so far?
Have you tried a Forum search, or a Web search?
Have you looked in your User Manual or tried the online help (F1)?
How experienced are you with masks, lassos and marquees?

You are certainly not the first person to want to do this.
Perhaps you should make some attempt on your own to find the answers that have been given MANY times prior to your asking...

MisterMister

Hi aligator,

There are several ways to remove a background in Photoshop. There's the Magic Eraser, Extract, Background Eraser, and Magnetic Lasso, just to name a few.

If you could tell us what type of image it is or maybe post a screenshot of it then I could provide you with more info.

MsOz

Of course, reading your manual or any of the dozen or so tutorials online on how to do this would work just as well...

Josh

Madster, I think everybody should be totally free to ask what he or she wants. Don't reply if you have nothing else to say than read your manual or visit Google. If you think that some people ask the same question over and over...
...why not write a tutorial You know, nobody orders you to help others.

Aligator, lots of people use masks.

Open an image (image should not be locked; double click on it if it's the background image, which will unlock it), click on the mask symbol (A) and select the mask by clicking on it; you'll notice a double border (B), which means that the mask is active (very important!). Now paint with a black brush on those areas that have to be invisible.
If you make a mistake, don't worry; just paint with 'white' over the area that has to be corrected. Just make sure that the mask is always active and that you paint on the mask and NOT the original.

Easy way to select black and white; click on the black & white symbol in your toolbar (C). You can switch your background/foreground by pressing 'X' on your keyboard.

Bacardi

When a mask is active (see the mask icon at the left of the small thumb in the layers palette; a brush would mean that the layer itself is active), the fore-and background colours automatically switch to black and white as a mask is in fact just another greyscale image with a few special functions.

Josh

You know Erik, I use Photoshop since 2 years now, used thousands of masks and for some unexplainable reason I've never noticed this! [bustagut]

Thanks! [righton]

Bacardi

Well, I never "noticed" it either you know...I simply took this one for granted. Never payed attention, and attention, being alert, is what it's all about, isn't it?

So thanks to you too! [righton]

Welles

Aligator,

There are so many techniques that your question is rather an open ended one. Different techniques work better on different images. If you could post an image for us to sample you would get more direct answers.

Here's a 'meta-site' which has assembled links to tutorials for making complex masks and precise selections with Adobe Photoshop. Techniques for using channel masks, alpha channels, quick mask mode, layer masks, grayscale masks, marquee selections, plus various random selections tips and tricks

http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/photoshopmasks/

neolite

YIKES!!! Did Madster wake up on the wrong side of the bed? [stuned]

As a new person to photoshop, I understand that it gets a bit overwhelming. You get to the point where you just want someone to tell you the answer.

This is a great forum to get directions/examples/support. We'll just chalk the grinches editorial up to the pressures of the holiday season.


P.S. Can someone tell me how to do all the stuff I don't know how to do? My brain hurts.