Photoshop CS5

[chickenfish13]

Hey Guys, I know this should probably go in the photoshop help forum, but honestly i feel like i would get better help just posting it here, so sorry if that seems bad or anything

Anyways, I just downloaded a CS5 tutorial, and am looking for some help. I've pretty much never used photoshop at all, but hopefully i can get this part. Its probably fairly simple to you who are experienced.

Basically, Im using this picture:

What im tying to do is get rid of everything but the goalie, so I can use the goalie in a background. Ive tried some stuff, but it all looks relatively sloppy.

Thanks to anyone who can help, hopefully its fairly simple

C-Fish

[oddball]

Hey Guys, I know this should probably go in the photoshop help forum, but honestly i feel like i would get better help just posting it here, so sorry if that seems bad or anything

Anyways, I just downloaded a CS5 tutorial, and am looking for some help. I've pretty much never used photoshop at all, but hopefully i can get this part. Its probably fairly simple to you who are experienced.

Basically, Im using this picture:

What im tying to do is get rid of everything but the goalie, so I can use the goalie in a background. Ive tried some stuff, but it all looks relatively sloppy.

Thanks to anyone who can help, hopefully its fairly simple

C-Fish

Honestly, there's really only one good way to do it, and that is to use the magic wand tool and select the area you don't want and delete it. There are other ways to do it, but I haven't found a better way that will give you the clean look you are wanting. The trick that I've learned after years of doing it, is to just do small selections, delete it, then save it, then go do another small section. Why? Because when you screw up, and you will, you will just have to hit undo and go back to the last version that you liked which is the one before you screwed up. If you want to try and do large sections, I suggest taking a sledge hammer to your head as it will be less painful than when you screw up a large section. Don't do it. Small sections at a time.

[chuckymack]

I don't know how familiar you are with the pen tool, but the absolute cleanest way to do it would be to trace it with that. Here's a little play-by-play of what you'd have to do:

1. Create a new Photoshop document once the application is up and running, with the background contents set to 'Transparent'.

2. Open the goalie photo file into the new document, which will create a new layer above the default 'Background' layer.

3. Delete the default 'Background' layer.

4. Set your Pen tool to 'Paths'.

5. Trace the goalie with the pen tool, making sure to close the path.

6. Hit Command+Enter to turn the path into a selection.

7. Hit Shift+Command+I to invert the selection to the background.

8. Hit Delete while the background is selected to, well, delete it.

9. Navigate the menu to Image>Trim to trim the canvas to the edge of the image.

10. Name and Save your file.

Hope this helps.

[TornadoGTS]

The pen tool is by far the best tool you can use. You can even do that in small sections for instances where you short on time, plus the pen tool is just like the pen tool in Illustrator in that its all editable nodes, so you have even more control than just going back a couple steps if needed. But the overall thing you gotta remember is to take your time. It's not gonna be a quick thing (if you wanna do it right), but most things aren't when your working on stuff like this

[gingerbreadmann]

^^^^ Yes. Please don't use the magic wand tool. Take it slow and use the Pen tool, and with practice your cuts will look great.

[pcgd]

Pen tool works but the best thing is to make a layer mask, that way you haven't gotten rid of the background completely if you need it again. Making a layer mask you can use any of the brush and eraser tools to define the shape of the goalie.

[gordie_delini]

^ Using a layer mask is great because it's non-destructive (i.e. you can fix mistakes and add back in as necessary) and is much easier to work with. By using brushes you can adjust your weight and hardness of the brush, which i'd recommend doing at 75% so you don't get an unnaturally hard edge around the goalie.

[BJK Design]

Either way works fine (Pen tool or Layer mask). My personal preference is using the lasso tool and a layer mask though, as people said before. It's non-destructive to the original file, and pleeeaaaassseeee don't use the magic wand tool! I wish they would get rid that all together.

[slapshot]

Combination of path tool and layer mask. As said above, it's always good to keep the original layer. Keeping the path tool allows for editing later on.

While keeping the selection made with the path tool active, click on the goalie layer and add layer mask. Then you have everything you need, and can make further edits as needed.

[oddball]

Did I say magic wand tool? Ooops, I was wrong. I meant the lasso tool. Yes, the magic wand tool won't do so well. Now all these people who are talking about non-destructive ways, well if you make a copy of it and lock the bottom copy, what does it matter. And using the pen tool in photoshop, completely sucks and contrary to what is said in here, it is similar to the pen tool in Illustrator, but oh so different and not even worth the time. The mask will work, but guess what, if you don't know how to use the pen tool then you have to use the lasso tool and if you're doing that just to make a mask, you might as well duplicate the layer and then cut out what you don't need in the second one.

[Markmansion]

If your using CS5 you could use the Quick Selection tool and select the goalie in the places you want, then use either lasso, or magnetic lasso to redefine the edges to get a rough selection. You can also just use the quick selection tool again and push Alt(PC)/Opt.(Mac) to go over any areas that it may have selected the background and not the goalie. After you have done all that type Ctl/Cmd + Shift + i to select the inverse and hit delete. Then you can use the eraser tool or some other feature and clean off the edges.

Here is an example of what the quick selection tool can do. I made this just using the quick selection tool and lasso. It's not perfect but it was done in about a minute.

[leggman01]

quick select is SO nice...great tool for this sort of thing...

[TornadoGTS]

Pen tool dont take long either though, and you have more control, plus usually better results.

[elsephen]

^yep. Smooth.

Practice with the pen tool. You'll probably use it more than anything else in photoshop.

[AdobeBrad]

Hey Guys, I know this should probably go in the photoshop help forum, but honestly i feel like i would get better help just posting it here, so sorry if that seems bad or anything

Anyways, I just downloaded a CS5 tutorial, and am looking for some help. I've pretty much never used photoshop at all, but hopefully i can get this part. Its probably fairly simple to you who are experienced.

Basically, Im using this picture:

What im tying to do is get rid of everything but the goalie, so I can use the goalie in a background. Ive tried some stuff, but it all looks relatively sloppy.

Thanks to anyone who can help, hopefully its fairly simple

C-Fish

Hey I know this old school, but I normally Just use the eraser option and zoom in on the photo; that's just me though. I noticed you said you currently have the trial version. I don't know if you are currently a student but I do some work with Adobe, and actually, the Creative Suite 5 Student and Teacher Editions have all the features and functionality of the commercial edition, outside of the discounted price (which is for college students and teachers who meet our eligibility). The cost of Adobe Student and Teacher Editions is up to 80% off the fully-priced product, and you can always purchase commercial upgrades after you graduate.

[oddball]

Hey Guys, I know this should probably go in the photoshop help forum, but honestly i feel like i would get better help just posting it here, so sorry if that seems bad or anything

Anyways, I just downloaded a CS5 tutorial, and am looking for some help. I've pretty much never used photoshop at all, but hopefully i can get this part. Its probably fairly simple to you who are experienced.

Basically, Im using this picture:

What im tying to do is get rid of everything but the goalie, so I can use the goalie in a background. Ive tried some stuff, but it all looks relatively sloppy.

Thanks to anyone who can help, hopefully its fairly simple

C-Fish

Hey I know this old school, but I normally Just use the eraser option and zoom in on the photo; that's just me though. I noticed you said you currently have the trial version. I don't know if you are currently a student but I do some work with Adobe, and actually, the Creative Suite 5 Student and Teacher Editions have all the features and functionality of the commercial edition, outside of the discounted price (which is for college students and teachers who meet our eligibility). The cost of Adobe Student and Teacher Editions is up to 80% off the fully-priced product, and you can always purchase commercial upgrades after you graduate.

I'll tell you the problem I have with using the eraser tool, is if you copy the image to a new image, you find out that there is still residue of the old picture still there. That is why I prefer to delete what I don't want. If I want to fade the image out, then sure, the eraser tool is fine.