Cutting outline of a picture

Tony255

Hi,

I am trying to do some banners for my website but was wondering within photoshop is there a way of outlining the main image that is contained within a background, not sure if i am explaining this properly. basically I want to put the main image on a different background but dont want the white background.

Regards
Tony

Zillah

Not quite sure if I'm understanding you right. Is it like this: You have a picture of a little girl standing in a field. You want to take the girl out of the field and put her in...lets say a bowling alley.

If that is indeed what you want, then do this: Open photo 1 (girl in field) and photo 2 (bowling alley). Use the lasso tool (third down from the top) to draw a line around the girl to separate her. You can hold down ctrl to add to your selection, or hold down alt to remove some. Once you've got her outlined, copy and paste her into photo 2.

There's plenty of tricks to make it look better but lets see if you get this far.

Anouilh

A tutorial on cutout and the lassoo tool:

http://www.bigbluesquid.com/tutorials/t_cutting_lasso.php

And, just in passing, I found these freeware brushes to be used in layers and masks that might be of use for adding texture:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/playingwithpsp/sets/72157604052440248/?page=3

Also, this is fun, though not exactly what you asked for:

http://bortonia.wordpress.com/tutorials/create-a-high-contrast-vector-portrait/

Anouilh

There is a plugin for Photoshop,

http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_details.aspx?id_product=47530

Also, Photofiltre, which is free, might give the effect you need.

Do a search for

"photofiltre cutout layer"

CabanSail

There are hundreds of ways to do this. Some work better than others in different situations.

If I understand you correctly, you want to get rid of a white background & substitute in another background instead?

A really easy way to get rid of a background which is a solid colour is to use the aptly named Background Eraser Tool. Make a copy of the background to work on & turn off the background layer. Fiddle with the Tollerance so it doesn't erase the image & then wipe away. It should leave that layer with the image surrounded by transparent. Then put in the new background image as a layer underneath. Save this as a PSD, so you can edit again later, as well as your Jpeg.

5uspect

And if you want the cutout image to be transparent over your webpage (no white) you need to save as a transparent GIF file.

Dublin_Gunner

I would generally just duplicate the layer, turn off the background layer, and mask out the background by hand. Gives you a lot more control, you can swap in/out whatever other background you like in another layer, and you can export just the subject on transparency by turning off the other layers.

Many other ways of doing it, but masking is my preferred method as its non-destructive.