help with cutting an image out

[Matt.H]

Ok heres the thing.......I have tried to use the extract thingy to cut a certain part out of the picture..and I have tried the magnetic lasso and the regular lasso....thing is, Im not good at doing either of those...well to get to the point, I would appreciate it greatly if someone could do it for me. If you could help, just post here and I will PM you with the pic and the specifics

 

[D-50]

Keep practicing because you will need to or at least want to be able to do it on your own someday. Use the extract option in photoshop it is a lot easier than the lasso

 

[Matt.H]

well see...thats just it..I have had PS for a couple years and I cant seem to get the hang of it

 

[Big Mike]

I agree...practice, practice, practice...

The extraction tool or the lasso are good starting points...but getting it to look good takes time and effort. There are also several other methods to get your selection.

I've found that using a mask is the best way to cover/show a certain part of an image. Once you have your general shape, it's just a matter of getting in close and fine tuning the mask...painting it on with black, off with white or somewhere in between with grey.

 

[Digital Matt]

As Mike said, try using a layer mask. Make a mask on the layer, and start painting with black around the subject. This will start to mask off the background and extract the subject. You can always fix mistakes by switching to white and going back over parts. It's not something that takes 5 minutes. I've spent 40 minutes to 2 hours trying to make a good selection. Stay with it.

 

[DeepSpring]

lets say you want to cut out a person and put them over another picture, is just erasing the background a good idea?

 

[Arch]

lets say you want to cut out a person and put them over another picture, is just erasing the background a good idea?

for me personally.. no its not a good idea..... i hardly ever use the eraser tool... you can use a layer mask to select around the person, then the layer underneath will show through..... or if your not very experienced, you could use a quick mask and fine tune it...... both options will mean if you zoom in to find part of the person cut off, you can always fix it...... if you use the eraser tool you cant...... unless you revert back to the position where you made the mistake.