How Do You Remove A Background?

[Purpley]

As title says, just looking for a step by step way on how people remove backgrounds. There are so many different ways of doing it, and would like to have a go at them all and see which one suits me best.

Thanks in advance.

[Luke W]

As title says, just looking for a step by step way on how people remove backgrounds. There are so many different ways of doing it, and would like to have a go at them all and see which one suits me best.

Thanks in advance.

It really repends on the image.

Different techniques are used for different types of subjects and backgrounds.

When you have a feel for all the tools at your disposal and how each can be used - you start to develope a feel for what is going to work best under each particular sitation.

If you have an example or two, I'd be happy to run through how I would tackle each one.

I'll assume we are talking Photoshop.

The key for me is the use of masks. Everything is based around masks. How each mask is created depends on the contrast and complexity of the edges.

For hard edges and smooth lines, I like to use the pen tool to create a path based mask. Sometimes I'll blur the edges of the mask using either the gaussian blur tool or the blur brush.

For softer edges or really complex masks (hair, smoke, fire), it gets trickier. Sometimes I'll check the individual channels, looking for the highest contrast edges and use that channel as a basis for my mask. Then I might use curves adjustments to fine tune the mask. Most complex masks are finished using the brush tools.

Often it's simply (simply...haha) a matter of a great deal of patience and working at large magnifications.

Sometimes you get lucky and cloning is all that's required.

Finally, and critically, I use a Wacom tablet and pen. It so, so, so, so much better for masking, cloning, brushwork etc than a mouse.

For a good reference for replacing backgrounds, check out the book by Katrin Eismann: Photoshop Masking & Compositing.

Oh - and sometimes it's just not worth the effort

Edited June 3, 2008 by Luke W

[wagsalot]

I've got a link to a tutorial at home that I use. Ill post it up when I get home.