Editing - extracting a section of a pic

[Snurk71]

What do you do when you have a picture with a lot of background "stuff" that you don't want to keep in an edited picture? Take the below picture as an example. If I want to extract DD and Belle and cut out the rest of the picture (making all of the background a solid color for a background), how would you do that cleanly and relatively easily?

I'm using PSE4. The magic extractor, magic selector, etc (all the "smart" selection tools) don't quite grab what I want to keep on the photo - they either delete part I want to keep or keep part that I don't. And using an eraser to cut out the extra seems like a pretty timeconsuming and painstaking process. Plus, when I erase by hand I don't think I get a very clean cut on the part I want to keep.

Am I missing something available in PSE4, or is this just how it works if you want to edit?

Thanks

 

[Amy]

Subscribing because I'm curious to know, too......

 

[DragonSlyr]

I would offer 2 suggestions depending on the effect you are looking for. I use PSCS2 but I think most of the features are the same.

One would be what you are attempting to do. Outline the section of the photo you wish to keep with the edge highlighter tool. After deleting the background you can use the history brush to replace any of the image that accidentally was remove. When you have your daughter and belle the way you want add any background you wish.

The second requires a little more work but will keep the existing background to retain the feeling of the photo while not being the focus. First, open the image and create a duplicate layer of it. Now we have two layers with the same image on it. On the duplicate layer, apply a Gaussian blur filter. (Filter, Blur, Gaussian Blur).

The amount of filter varies according to the intensity you desire. Play around with it to get your desired effect. Since the other people are close to our "target," start with a setting of 3.3. Your image should look blurry.
Now, add a reveal all layer mask on the duplicate layer. To do this, go to Layer, Add Layer Mask, Reveal All. Go ahead and select the brush tool and choose a soft brush, but one that is big enough to paint Belle and your daughter.

Next is the key part. With the layer mask selected, use the paintbrush to paint black color on the part of the picture in which you want the focus (in this case, Belle and your daughter). To make the depth of the field more realistic, you can change the opacity of the paintbrush so the effect easily blends in. It is also a good idea to zoom into the picture so you can get the edges with perfection. As you continue painting the focused image will reveal itself.

 

[jann1033]

I would offer 2 suggestions depending on the effect you are looking for. I use PSCS2 but I think most of the features are the same.

One would be what you are attempting to do. Outline the section of the photo you wish to keep with the edge highlighter tool. After deleting the background you can use the history brush to replace any of the image that accidentally was remove. When you have your daughter and belle the way you want add any background you wish.

The second requires a little more work but will keep the existing background to retain the feeling of the photo while not being the focus. First, open the image and create a duplicate layer of it. Now we have two layers with the same image on it. On the duplicate layer, apply a Gaussian blur filter. (Filter, Blur, Gaussian Blur).

The amount of filter varies according to the intensity you desire. Play around with it to get your desired effect. Since the other people are close to our "target," start with a setting of 3.3. Your image should look blurry.
Now, add a reveal all layer mask on the duplicate layer. To do this, go to Layer, Add Layer Mask, Reveal All. Go ahead and select the brush tool and choose a soft brush, but one that is big enough to paint Belle and your daughter.

Next is the key part. With the layer mask selected, use the paintbrush to paint black color on the part of the picture in which you want the focus (in this case, Belle and your daughter). To make the depth of the field more realistic, you can change the opacity of the paintbrush so the effect easily blends in. It is also a good idea to zoom into the picture so you can get the edges with perfection. As you continue painting the focused image will reveal itself.

since i was trying to do this too thanks...but how did you learn to do this? the tutorials don't seem to say much and i can not for the life of me figure out how to get a layer system going and can't really find much about the basics...maybe i need a book or something.

 

[Snurk71]

I would offer 2 suggestions depending on the effect you are looking for. I use PSCS2 but I think most of the features are the same.

One would be what you are attempting to do. Outline the section of the photo you wish to keep with the edge highlighter tool. After deleting the background you can use the history brush to replace any of the image that accidentally was remove. When you have your daughter and belle the way you want add any background you wish.

The second requires a little more work but will keep the existing background to retain the feeling of the photo while not being the focus. First, open the image and create a duplicate layer of it. Now we have two layers with the same image on it. On the duplicate layer, apply a Gaussian blur filter. (Filter, Blur, Gaussian Blur).

The amount of filter varies according to the intensity you desire. Play around with it to get your desired effect. Since the other people are close to our "target," start with a setting of 3.3. Your image should look blurry.
Now, add a reveal all layer mask on the duplicate layer. To do this, go to Layer, Add Layer Mask, Reveal All. Go ahead and select the brush tool and choose a soft brush, but one that is big enough to paint Belle and your daughter.

Next is the key part. With the layer mask selected, use the paintbrush to paint black color on the part of the picture in which you want the focus (in this case, Belle and your daughter). To make the depth of the field more realistic, you can change the opacity of the paintbrush so the effect easily blends in. It is also a good idea to zoom into the picture so you can get the edges with perfection. As you continue painting the focused image will reveal itself.

It sounds like you know what you're doing. If it's not too much to ask, could you post one of your "before" and "after" projects as a sample and how much time it took to edit? Then maybe some of us could practice on the same "before" picture to see if we can get a decent "after" (maybe even posting our results). I imagine a few others here would appreciate it too since there are probably a number of us without this skill yet.

Thanks

 

[Dznefreek]

A quick test. Something like this. . . ..

Let me know if you would like a different background color. I can clean it up as well.

 

[Dznefreek]

Blur effect . . . .

 

[Amy]

Oooh, I like the blur effect. I assume you can do that with Photoshop Elements? I just got PSE4 today as a matter of fact, haven't even opened the box yet. I think I'm going to get myself a step-by-step book.

 

[Snurk71]

A quick test. Something like this. . . ..

Let me know if you would like a different background color. I can clean it up as well.

If that's a quick test, I'm doing something wrong . I would have spent 30 minutes trying to edit out like this and still not had as good of lines as yours.

So what am I missing? Did your magic extract grab the right lines to cut, or did you cut out most of the background first and then detail erase out the remainder?

 

[Dznefreek]

I used the erase tool to remove the backgound and then pressed "CTRL+" to zoom in to do the edges. When I zoomed in I reduced the brush size to 3 to feather the edges, then used the fill bucket to add the color.

 

[fitzperry]

The magnetic lasso seems to be the easiest and quickest way to make these kinds of selections in PSE, at least for me.

The blur effect is nice. I've also used selective coloring to make something stand out against a busy background. Here's an example, although I notice now I probably should have left the spray bottle in color . . . .

 

[Snurk71]

I used the erase tool to remove the backgound and then pressed "CTRL+" to zoom in to do the edges. When I zoomed in I reduced the brush size to 3 to feather the edges, then used the fill bucket to add the color.

Do you use any specific brush to feather the edges (not size, I think there are different brushes in PSE)?

 

[Dznefreek]

I meant to say I reduce the erase tool to a 3 not a brush, sorry.

 

[DragonSlyr]

Jen,

The selective coloring looks awesome, I had not even thought about that approach. That’s the great thing here getting different ideas and just keep experimenting.