Photoshop-Removing background from images

Hi,

I am designing a catalog however the photos have a background, for

example the pictures are of shoes but i can see the table the shoe is

sitting on and the background behind the shoe, is there a way to cut

the shoes out in Photoshop so the background is removed?

Thanks

I realize this is an old post, but better late than never.

I would use a combination of the Magic Wand and the Selection Marquee tools to remove as much of the background as possible. Then I would go back with the Eraser to take out any leftover bits.

Be sure to save out a copy of your original photo first.

I realize this is an old post, but better late than never.

 

I would use a combination of the Magic Wand and the Selection Marquee tools to remove as much of the background as possible. Then I would go back with the Eraser to take out any leftover bits.

 

Be sure to save out a copy of your original photo first.

No No No No! Marquee and Magic wand are useless, in fact they should be removed from the program! Use the pen tool and draw around what you want to keep following the outline as close as you can, then when your pen line is finshed right click and on the menu choose 'make selection' then right click again and select 'select inverse' on the menu and hit delete.

No No No No! Marquee and Magic wand are useless, in fact they should be removed from the program!

Excuse me? Why don't you take it down a notch Fire_col.

Marquee and Magic Wand are useless? I think that's a pretty ridiculous statement. They are both very useful tools.

In the future, if you have a better method than what has been described by another member, then please post it, but do so in a manner that's a little less abrasive. Your response here is just rude and completely out of line. There are many different ways to remove backgrounds in Photoshop and one method does not always work for all images. You have to assess your image and use the best method for the job.

Here is a site showing 5 different ways to remove backgrounds: http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshop/l/blremovebackg.htm

Here is another way: http://www.photoshopcafe.com/tutorials/cutout/cutout.htm

And yet another way: http://www.photoshop911.com/clipping/index.html

Google has page after page of tutorials on how to remove background images.

My apologies Cad64, I maybe should have put in a smilie I wasn't intending on being abraisive, the no no no no bit was supposed to be light hearted I forget the written form doesn't really imply tone.

And you're right marquee is useful didn't mean to include that but Magic Wand really isn't, in my opinion.

Pen tool does work best if you've got a background as was described I.E a Table and other such elements, it also is better as it doesn't selsct whole pixels but will round them off by 'muting' out what you don't require.

I prefer to use images with a single colour background that way I can make my selection through the channels it's a lot faster.

Apology accepted.

It's sometimes difficult to understand intent when reading messages in the forum. That's why it's very important to read what you've written before hitting the "Submit" button and try to read it as if you were the one receiving the message. Then think to yourself, how would I react if someone posted this in a reply to something I had written? Would I be offended? If so, you should probably re-word your response. I do this all the time at work when sending emails. I will re-write emails 5 times before sending them, just to make sure I don't offend anyone, because once you hit the "Send" button, there's no taking it back.

As for removing backgrounds, I posted that reply about a year ago. Since then, I've started using more Non-destructive ways of editing my images. I create selections and use clipping masks whenever possible in order to preserve the original image. Similar to this tutorial: http://www.photoshop911.com/clipping/index.html. This method allows me to go back and refine my selection and show or hide more of the clipped image.

And yes, I do use the pen tool to create my selections. But I use it in combination with the marquee and magic wand. I do whatever it takes to create my selections as quickly as possible.

I've had the best results with Polygonal or Magnetic Lasso. You'll need to zoom in quite a bit and if it's low contrast then need to guide the lasso quite a bit but if used properly it's pretty darn accurate. With the proper amount of feather the end result can look very good.

Siim Teller

http://www.grabcad.com