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Removing Background (Image Inside)


I

iDesign

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Any tips on the quickest & effective way to remove everything apart from the cake?

So far I have tried:
- background eraser set to Discontinuous, and the cake seems to be removing too.
- Magic wand tool, again, not working.
- Quicke selection tool

Obviously I have the option of manually removing it with the Poly tool, but I yawn as I think about it.

baking.jpg
 
Last edited:
Poly Tool? Do you mean the Polygonal Lasso Tool?

If so, why or where have you heard that this is a goo tool for this type of selection? The Pen Tool is a much better tool!

However, I would not use either. I making a quick example to show you...........hold on.
 
The key to getting a good selection quickly is to make it easy for the automated tools like the "Quick Selection" tool. The way to do this is to make a temporary copy of the original in which you brighten murky shadows, sharpen everything, increase the vibrance (so weakly saturated colors become more saturated), etc. Then, "quick select" can often do 90% or more of the work, with only a little touch-up work remaining.

So, what I did was bring one copy of the image into ACR, cranked up the clarity, shadows, vibrance and sharpening, exported the resulting horrible looking image into PS, ran it through the high pass filter (set to around 10 px), and then turned the Quick Select tool loose on it. There was only one small area that it missed, so I used a bit of "refine edges", and then I filled in the tiny bit that remained with the poly select tool.

I then opened up a 2nd, normal looking copy of the original in PS, moved the above selection over from the 1st copy, and performed the extraction. Total time < 5 min.

HTH,

Tom

baking-tjm01-ps01a_sRGB-01.jpg
 
I would use the Brush Tool on a layer mask. Set the Brush Tool to 100% Opacity, !00% Flow and anywhere from 50% hardness to about 75% depending on where I was working. The softer the edge of the object being selected, the softer I would make the brush.

First make a duplicate of the images and use Shadows & Highlights to reveal whats hidden in the shadows. You will work on this layer and when done, you will move (copy) the mask you create to the original or a duplicate of the original.

Screen Shot 2014-10-26 at 9.20.22 AM.png

Place a white and a black layer beneath the working layer. This will help you in seeing what you may have missed.

The rest is just brushing. Zoom in when needed.

Screen Shot 2014-10-26 at 9.23.35 AM.png

It goes very fast, the whole thing only took me about 6 mins. The beauty of masks is that they can always be refined.

Screen Shot 2014-10-26 at 9.25.04 AM.png
 
Thanks guys, I am going to have a go at this tonight.

I think even more of the key is, is for me to take the photo on a PLAIN surface next time :eek:. Oh, and to do that before I actually eat it :cheesygrin:.
 
All I need now is a good cup of coffee!:)
food.JPG
 
Well you got it......I laughed and the coffee hit the monitor :cry:....

I use Toms way sorta....I still forget about putting a jpeg into ACR...but a copy and high pass work wonders, then I use refine edge and save my mask as a new layer...3 minutes.

All sorts of easy quick ways to go...Masking works wonders
 
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