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Need help with images


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UsniperfireM

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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
 
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.
 
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.
 
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:
 
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
 
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...
 
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.
 
UsniperfireM...it's there. :righton:
 
this is just one method, there are others.... :}
 
I am having trouble with the anchor tool or not using it right. Cause i outline the whole image with the pen tool then when i go to drag it to the new space it takes everything in the whole pictures and not just the outlined are

What could I be doing wrong thre?
 
I think i firgured that part out not sure. When you get the anchor point and hit the make selection does it highligh the lines around the area to be removed?

If so how to you delete it. Where is the delete command?

If this is the easiest way I am in trouble lol
 
if you have 'marching ants' running around the shape. go to Select > Inverse. then hit the 'delete key'. the background goes away. If you want to save a step, don't Inverse, just copy then paste into the graphic you want it in, on a new layer. ;)
 
I should first point out i am using adobe photoshop 6 is that matters.


OK i am doing something wrong so maybe I can explain what I am going and then you can see where I am going wrong.

I open the pictures i want to grab the image from

Then i open a new picture just like you said and made sure it is transparent

Then from the picture i opened first i use the rectangular marquee tool and get the image i want from the picture and move it to the transparent picture.

Then i hit the pen tool after zooming in the image and i go about 1/2 of the way around the image with the pen tool

Next i take the pen tool out and away from the image until i get all the way back around to where it forms a box around the background i dont need of the image.

Then i switch to the and click on the first point (I think i am not using the anchor tool right at all) It is not setup the way i have seen it for others.

Anyway then i do what you say windows . show path. make selection. Then the window pops up. If offers feathering to 0 and the anti on. It makes me choose one of these 4 options .. newslection, add selection, subtract from selection or intersect with selection. I leave it on default new selection.

Then i do that you just said i should do select inverse then delete. Yet instead of the area i have covered which is background going away the actual image goes away and the spot sectioned off stays.


Sorry just this has been my issue holding me back for ever . My inability to take images out.
 
look at the image I sent you...do NOT attempt to eliminate the entire background yet. When you're ready to delete the section you've made a path around, hit delete. You can go back after you've 'outlined' the subject and erase the remaining image you don't need. You'd only 'Inverse and delete' if you made a complete path around the subject on the first go. I'm having you do it in sections. What's happening is you're getting too much going and you're closing the path with the subject inside so it goes away. take it slow and think it through. \:/ PS6 shouldn't be an issue ( but I'd consider upgrading )
 
ronmatt said:
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.
Click to expand...

If you think you should be allowed to drive 60miles/hr where 30miles/hr is allowed, then you don?t go driving 30 miles over the speed limit to enforce a new speed limit.
That?s pretty much what you continue to do with the images, you're enforcing your own rules, reason why I was sadly (and I mean that) forced a few weeks back after one year of patience to let the system automatically add ?*** no image links allowed, use attachments instead ***? to any image sharing url.
If people don?t agree with the 700 pixels limit, no problem, I?m always open for discussion and there?s actually a sticky thread for that, btw one in which you and Mindbender have never participated:
http://www.photoshopgurus.com/forum/index.php?topic=7804.0 ;)


ronmatt said:
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
Click to expand...

If people can?t explain something with screenshots that don?t exceed 700 pixels, then they need to visit sites like planetphotoshop, photoshopcafe, photoshoproadmap, heathrowe, phong, etc or check many of my posts on multiple Photoshop forums. There are also multiple reasons why we have a 700 pixels limit (explained mutliple times in the past). Basically it comes to this; think beyond your own world and think about facts.
 
I just visited Planetphotoshop and yes, I can make a very detailed tutorial like the ones there ( and on many other sites )
But these are forum threads with people asking specific questions. They're looking for quick answers. All I'm trying to do is address their immediate needs. Not necessarily with a full blown tutorial with 5 or 10 or 20 screenshots of pallets and settings. Which we couldn't post anyway with a limit of 3. I probably wouldn't even consider trying to help someone if I had to design and write a tutorial of that caliber to do so. I also think that response to problems in a timely manner, not days or weeks later is why people come to this forum. To do this I feel that 700px and a limit of 3 per post is sometimes limiting. I don't have a website, so I can't link to that. I have no presence on the internet to link to.
I'm not bitchin', no skin off of my teeth. I just think that being able to post more and better info would be very beneficial to all.
...And Thank You...

"think beyond your own world and think about facts".....What the hell does that mean ?? \:/
 
ronmatt said:
I just think that being able to post more and better info would be very beneficial to all.
Click to expand...

The knowledge of the one trying to help is more important than the size of his files.

ronmatt said:
"think beyond your own world and think about facts".....What the hell does that mean ??
Click to expand...

"Facts" are things like storage requirements on the server, backup times, download times for modem users, statistics about high-speed/dial-up, statistics about resolution, less pruning than in the past, etc.

"Think beyond your own world" is for example forgetting that often people a few miles way from a town's border don't have the infrastructure that can provide them with high-speed internet or that your 1152 pixel wide 250KB image might not be a limitation for you, but likely is (especially if you know the facts like I do) for many of the people from the 120 countries that visit PSG every month.

Btw, I can download between 0.9MB-1,3MB/sec and I can use resolutions up to 1600 pixels wide, so obviously I don't have these limitions for my own benefit.
It's also not my fault that many other forums really don't care about dial-up users, one of the reasons why some might consider our limits (which includes Mark's limits, which were pretty much the same) pretty strict. :\

Understand everyone that I?m open to any suggestion, either to increase the max width, the maximum number of attachments, the max attachment size, heck I?m even open for a discussion to reconsider linking to external images, but I do appreciate it if you also take dial-up users into account, according to latest statistics about 30-40% of all internet users in the USA http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=7189 and outside the US often a lot worse.
Aso take in account that we don't have only users from Europe or North-America, but users from almost 120 countries every month.

However if you only make suggestions for your own benefit, then you?re pretty much talking to a deaf person. ;)
 
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