I want to eliminate the background in some of my pictures. Can someone walk me through this? Please

What version do you have? In 7, under the help menu, there is a command called Export Transparent Image that will walk you through it. The name might be different on a PC (I'm guessing something with the word "wizard" in it).

Is the background a solid color without much variation? If so you can use the PAINT BUCKET TOOL select your foreground color and just click on the background. I'll post the other way I do it in the reply.

Here's an example.

Here's the other way I do it if the paint bucket tool doesn't work :). HTH!

Thank you Kori!! I can do it now, lol.

Ok, now I have a white background, but how do you make it clear? I think I can only learn by screenshots, lol, I tried to follow the directions, and they don't make sense.

Choose your Magic Eraser Tool, click on the background and then save as a .gif

what it should look like

Man, you really rock Kori!

first try

Looks like with that picture you'll have to use the polygonal lasso tool. If you're having trouble and you want me to do it for you I can :).

Please, be my guest, lol, here is the original pic

I do it differently :) I use the magic wand mostly, and then shift to the quick mask mode and use the brushes to correct whatever I see wrong. With the magic wand if you select too much (like around the edges where it shouldnt overlap, you can choose select---inverse and then use the wand on the object to correct it. Also if you click and change the layer to layer 0, instead of leaving it as a background layer, you dont have to use the eraser to tak out the background, you can just hit delete when it is selected :)
It takes a bit of practice, but makes things look So much better!~
heather

:)

Oh my Gosh Heather I've never tried the Magic Wand. That makes it so much easier :thumbsup: . Thanks!

lol here is my version-- also if you know you are doing a white background, you can sometimes feather around the image to make the edges less rough--
eta-- that is under select, and i dont usually ever do over 1 pixel. for some things it works and looks great, others not so much.
heather

I tried to make the edges better. Does it look the same? LOL! Do you want it this small or do you have a bigger one?

Another option for precision is creating a path with the pen tool and then converting your path to a selection.

Another option is to use the Filter->Extract function and highlight over the edges of what youw ant to extract.

This was done with the Extract function.

(i cna't save it as a gif right now because for some reason i cnat undestand doing so makes photoshop crash, and since im working i can't have that right now. but you get the idea.)

and then of course you'd just do a quick clean up with the eraser.

Amber--
I cant ever get the extract tool to work right! I have tried it a few times, and just can't make it work! Dh just got knockout (a plugin by Corel) and he really likes it, so I might try it soon.
Gotta run-- if you have any tips for the extract, I would love to hear them :)
heather

Originally posted by herc
Amber--
I cant ever get the extract tool to work right! I have tried it a few times, and just can't make it work! Dh just got knockout (a plugin by Corel) and he really likes it, so I might try it soon.
Gotta run-- if you have any tips for the extract, I would love to hear them :)
heather

Hmm. I don't really have any tips. I guess just make sure you're using a highlighter diameter that adequately covers the edge of what you want to preserve. And make sure you overlap--you need to get the edge of what you want to preserve with a bit of the background.

*shrug* i've never had a real problem with it, so i dont know. But this feature is *invaluable* for extracting irregular foregrounds, like anything with hair or feathers or other fine lines that would be all but impossible to catch with any other method. I love the extract feature!