UsniperfireM

I run a site for sports and i am in constant need to make banners and logos and such. Every where i look it seems people can make great banners. The one thing i can not seem to master is the best way to take a picture of lets say a sports player and cut him out of a picture to put him in my picture. Yet so many people seem to know how to do it so well. Everytime i ask someone i get no detail. Just says use the pencil or use the magnet. You seem to have to have the perfect steady hand to do it that way.

Is there anyone who can give me step by step lessons on the best way to take an image out of a picture without all the rough edges and peices of the background that always seeem to follow anytime i try it.

Hell i will pay if need be for some decent instruction

Thanks

ronmatt

What you want is called 'Extraction'. You want to extract an image from it's background. There are as many ways to do this as there are fleas on an ally cat. There are a myriad of 3rd party plugins, some of which are much better than others. There are tools found in Photoshop that will effectively do the job, but require some level of skill. There are no 'push button' techniques that work 100%. All methods need some skills, all the plugins require some skills. What it boils down to is, how much skill do you have? I would be happy to give you some pointers as to how I do it, but I couldn't guarantee that you could do it my way because I don't know your skill level. Most everyone on this forum can advise you as to their method, but the bottom line is, what you can do.

UsniperfireM

I would say I am a beginner when it comes to images. Other things I can do at i would say a medium level. But the images have always been my fall back. So i guess for me the easiest way to teach me would be best. Or maybe you could explain the easiest way and then the next step up also so as i get better.

ronmatt

OK buddy, I'll prepare a little tutorial and I'll post it Wed afternoon. I'll make it as easy to follow as I can. [righton]

UsniperfireM

Thank you I look foward to it. This is a great community. Good response time lol

ronmatt

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/48/extcopyjx6.jpg (larger image)

Hope this helps, if it's too vague, just ask specific questions

extraction using the pen tool:
1) open the photo you want to use then open a new window
the same size and resolution with a transparent background.
2) copy the photo and paste it into the new window ( or drag it )
3) select the pen tool ( the top one in the option menu )
4) enlarge the photo in the new window to a comfortable size for working on
5) place the point of the pen tool on the edge of what you want outlined and
right click
6) move the pen point a short distance from the initial anchor point and click
again
NOTE: the closer together the anchor points, the smoother the path will
be.
7) when learning this method, do the process in smaller sections. Once you get
the hang of it
you can make the sections larger.
8) when you get to the point where you want to delete a section of background so
that you
can start another section, move the pen point out and away from the subject
and set an anchor point
then return to the initial anchor point and click on it to close the path.
9) click on Windows > Paths > Make Selection...a new dialog window will pop up.
Set the feathering to
'0' and check anti-aliased 'on'.
10) hit the delete command..The background inside the path will become
transparent.
11) continue by duplicating the process in a new area. Start by setting the
first anchor point in a cleared
area the place the second anchor point where you left off in the first
section.
Continue this process until you've cleared all the background around the
subject. Then erase everything outside that you didn't clear with paths.

You can now place the subject into another photo or save it in a file format
that preserves transparency
such as .png

ronmatt

Gaussian. This is what bothers me about this forum. Try to help someone by providing some visual aid and we have to work with low rez thumbnails instead of images that can be deciphered. The linked image is posted on this site but it's too small to make out any detail. That's why I tried to link a larger image as well...

UsniperfireM

Can you email me the link?

tjohnson02105@gmail.com

retired_paddza

I agree 100% with ronmatt. I understand the reasoning behind embedding vs. linking. But it's too prohibitive. And in this case he linked and embedded the documents to try to make a useful tutorial which the restrictions of the board wouldn't allow. So the whole reasoning behind not allowing links is that it keeps useful information like tutorials available so people can see them when url's go down. So removing a link to a useful tutorial goes against the entire ostensible purpose entirely.

Often when I was on dial-up I would upload large files to a server once, then write tutorials or information for several forums and post so that I wouldn't have to wait for uploads all night to each forum. If a forum didn't allow linking for some reason, I just simply wouldn't post the information, as it was too much of a hassle to deal with. On occasion the sites that required embedding content have had their own problems and images have been lost because of that.

All in all, the concept is sound, but the actual implementation and particulars need to be revisited, IMO.

$0.02

ps. Good information ronmatt. Image extraction is one of the most common questions asked (right after "why doesn't my image in Photoshop look like my image in IE?"). You should post that tutorial as a sticky in the tutorials section so it's easily referenced.

ronmatt

UsniperfireM...it's there. [righton]