cutting someone out of a picture.

Hobbes

Ok, first up this is my very first attempt so its my own way of doing it. Wondering if there was an easier way (using PSP).

Here is what I did.

1. Take a normal photo (for the test a stock photo).

2. Picked a subject I wanted to remove.

3. Created a new layer and set it to 25% opacity.

4. Painted in white freehand draw around the subject.

5. Cleaned up using the eraser around the edges.

6. Created a new layer above that and using free drawing, I draw a line around the person and highlighted areas.

7. Went back to layer 2 and erased anything that went over the outside lines.

results in the attachment.

Gordon

Creepy! Can you make him move?!

If I did that I'd use the jaggy line lassoo tool to select the outline of the person as fine as possible, zooming in close up. And on a new layer I'd fill the selection I made with the lassoo tool. Then put a stroke on the outside of the cutout on the new layer (blending options) and manually draw the inside bits with a pen.

There's probably even quicker ways of doing that. I'm sure there are some raster-vector converters out there but I haven't found a good one yet (for mac) apart from an old copy of some Adobe or macromedia software I used to have. Although Inkscape can vectorise from a raster image, but I couldn't get simple detail like that image there.

tba

You could create a selection and paint white inside it



I cant decide if shading makes it better or worse.

Ps I used a tablet to draw in the details..

Goodshape

tba wrote:

Ps I used a tablet to draw in the details..

Was just about to ask would love one of those things.

Looks better without the shading imo.

Hobbes

Nice. The shading puts you back into the picture (if you get my drift).

Need to find a way to not make the face look so cartoon like. I guess a smaller brush for drawing the lines.

tba

It is possible to get some cheap A5 tablets with a decent pressure sensitivity for under €60, I have used them before

I believe I saw one in Argos.

Ruu_Old

Great work guys, alot like the aha video that was done all those years ago

tba

This concept intrigues me, there is a strong metaphor about the individual being gone... I have a few ideas for a series, but I need to prefect this technique first.