Photoshop question

[neea]

Hey everyone,

I'm wondering what the best way is to clean up pictures.
I need to edit pictures of plants for a landscape designer.
Here's an example:
http://horticulture.missouri.edu/starbuck/list15/hydrang_pan_pnkdiam.JPG

I need to try to remove as much background as possible. Magic lasso works good for flowers and stuff but what's the best way to do it on pictures that have really jagged edges.
Someone told me something about the extract tool the other day but when I tried it it was a huge disaster!!!:meh:

Is there someway I can 'paint' what i want to keep and get rid of the rest?

Thanx in advance everyone

 

[Big Mike]

There are several techniques. I like to use the magic wand, or 'select color range'...for starters...then I convert the selection into a layer mask. Once it's a layer mask...then you can paint it on or off as you please...with all the flexibility of the brush tool.

To make the initial selection even easier...you can use an adjustment layer (levels etc) and crank up the contrast...then once you have the selection...just trash the adjustment layer.

 

[neea]

Hmm.
What does the magic wand do?
I've never used that before.
I'm also not quite sure what a layer mask does either.
haha