Removing background from images

Alex Ross

Hi,

I am designing a catalogue 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

davemac83

Alex,

I'm not realy up on my photoshopping techniques but if there's an option to reshoot these images I would suggest using a lenses (such as a 50mm f1.8 or f1.4) using these lowest apperture number i.e. f1.8. Try and get some good separation between the shoes and the background thus getting a shallow depth of field. Try using plain backgrounds (maybe a white box) to place your subject in and minimise the need for the shallow dof.

Hope this helps however, I'm sure there are plenty more on this site that can help you with a photoshop method.

stcstc

the way to do it is using the chanel palette in photoshop to create a mask

Wez

You're better off re-shooting - depending on the volume of images..

I had this problem before when working on a shoot for a jewellery store, they had to be pretty much perfect, would notice it more so than with shoes/other random - larger products.

Ideally these should be shot on a plain background (preferably white) and with good lighting from all sides. This gives them a bright, clear finish and allows the reader to get a clear view of what they're thinking of buying.

Remeber, they should be documentary style, purely factual (i.e anything like sockets/buttons on the side of an appliance etc.) but some taste and clever positioning never goes unnoticed!

If you're planning on re-using the images you have, you'll be spending alot of time in photoshop editing the images, when a reshoot could be less time consuming!

Although if it's not an option, I reckon either using a mask as stcstc said before, and just remove most. Or just cut out the products using lasso tool!

davenewt

Depends on version of Photoshop you have* and how many images you have to process.

*Later versions of PS have a 'magic background eraser' tool which can work wonders on the right images when used correctly (there's a number of options with this tool that can make it seem either simple or completely backwards depending on how you configure it)

...but like others said, re-shooting on a white background is probably a much better option and should be a lot less hassle for re-using all the images in the long run.

DaireQuinlan

stcstc wrote: »

the way to do it is using the chanel palette in photoshop to create a mask

no no no. Thats not what the chanel palette is for ! I don't think you nose what you're talking about, you're simply not making any scents ...

stcstc

daire


what do you mean


i do this all the time, kinda how guy gowan does it


why not use the real shapes included in the channels to create a mask?


*** edit doooooh i see what ya on about, he he

whyulittle

This thread smells fishy.....

Chochese

Is it something like this you're looking to do?



You need to use the pen tool to create a work path around the object, then convert it to a clipping path in order to punch it out of the background.

Methinks this is more suited to the Digital Art & Design board...

What program are you using to make the catalogue?

al_

If you have lots of images to do you would be better off reshooting them.
If thats not an option and you have photoshop, you can get a plugin called mask pro4 from onone software.
Failing that there is a very basic tutorial for another simple way to do it here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=58208362#post58208362

DaireQuinlan

stcstc wrote: »

*** edit doooooh i see what ya on about, he he