I am specifically trying to take make photos of something have a totally transparent background so the stand alone without a fuzzy edge or left over pixels??
Yup. Lots of practice. Sorry we don't have a specific magic answer for you (that "magic" wand is misleading isn't it? hehe). Knocking out backgrounds are one of those things that are very common and also very troublesome at times. Listen to the advice you've been given so far here, learning to use the tools as well as learning how photoshop actually does what it does are going to be the stongest way of learning. I always suggest using simple images to learn on so you know if you got it right. It's easier to extract flat objects from simple backgrounds than complex ones from complex backgrounds. That sounds obvious, but lots of people start trying to learn to do good extractions with some photo of their girlfriend at the beach with their hair all flying in the wind in front of some complex menagerie of people and beach umbrellas. This is about the
worst place to start learning about photoshop extractions. Start with a picture of a coffee mug on a plain colored background!
Learn the tools... learn the
many differet ways to do extractions (more in a minute on that) and then when you're comfortable with the tools you'll have a much easier time tackling the hard stuff.
Good techniques to become familiar with and research on extractions:
Selections - these are the primary tool that most people start with and the basis for separating different sections of your image. You can build selections
directly with man different tools (magic wand, lasso, marquees, etc.). Good techniques here are learning to add, subtract, and difference your selections by using the different modifier keys. e.g. Holding the shift key will allow you to add your current selection tool to the already existing selection.
Masking - My personal favorite. This allows you to separate things by making them invisible but not destroying them. i.e. You can make something have a transparent background, but if you decide later that you want the background you can just turn off the mask because all you did was make part of the image invisible, not delete it. Masks are also great because they let your
paint out the areas that you want to hide or show. Learning about layer masks will immediately double the amount of productivity you get out of photoshop.
Extract tool (PS 6+ only) - Never liked this tool, but some people love it. It allows you to paint out places on your image to define the edge of an object then the computer semi-automatically builds the selection and extracts the image. I found it to be too slow and ham-handed for my tastes, but a lot of people make it work wonders.
Paths - Smooth surfaces, sloping curves, straight edges, and large complex shapes are the best friend of the bezier path. Learning to use the
pen tool is a must for making that quantum leap into photoshop and graphics in general. There are some great basic path tutorials out there for the searching (I like the ones at
www.gurusnetwork.com). Once you've made a closed path with the pen tool, you can convert that shape into a selection, make a mask directly, or many other ineteresting things. Paths are infinitely scalable and editable, so if you need to fine tune something, you can always go back and make a minor tweak without the need to start over.
Combining methods - Here is where you really start to get diverse with photoshop using things like duplicated alpha channels or bouncing between selection tools and the
quick mask to gradually build up a selection that is more and more accurate. This is where you want to get to eventually. Once you know how to use all the basic tools, there are some really useful ways to combine them so that they are even more powerful by relying on only the strengths of each tool.
Hopefully that gives you some places to start looking. Do lots of research and practice. If you get stuck on a specific problem, post some specific questions here and I'm sure someone can help you.
Good luck and welcome.
