Extract an object from the background - Photoshop

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Revision as of 11:25, 17 May 2013 by Greenea (Talk | contribs)

1. Select the object you want to isolate from its background

  1. Choose the Quick Selection tool PS-quick-selection-tool.png
  2. Adjust the brush diameter (keyboard shortcut: [ to make smaller ] to make larger).
    • Note the + in the center of the brush, you will be adding to the selection
    • Hold down the Option key to remove areas from the selection

Select your foreground object with the Quick Selection Tool


2. Once you have a good selection, Refine the Edge

Choose the Refine Edge... button at the top in the Quick Selection Tool Properties

3. Set the View Mode

From the View Mode drop-down choose the background color that works best for your image

Choose the View Mode

4. Adjust the Edge parameters

  • Smooth, Feather, Contrast, try different sliders to see what works best for your image
  • If there are parts of the selection that need more help you can refine the edge by dragging the cursor of that part of the image
  • Check the Decontaminate Colors checkbox (this does a good job of further remove background pixels

Adjust the Edge setting and Decontaminate Colors

5. Set the Output to

  • Recommended is New Layer with Layer Mask
  • Click OK

New Layer with layer mask is created