Need to remove a background from something?

[PhotosGuy]

Here's a '37 Willys I shot last night. It seemed to be too pretty to just leave it in the parking lot!

1. Make a selection of the car & one of the windows & save them in the Channels Palette as a Channel mask. (Look at the buttons at the bottom of the Channels Palette).
More about Selections @: Selecting areas in PhotoShop (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=39994)

Click the Palette Tab to return to the Layers Palette. 2-click on the Background layer to unlock it. Rename it or go with the default "Layer 0" name.
Recall the main car selection.
Layer> Add Layer Mask> Reveal All
Edit> Fill, with black.
Now the unwanted background should be hidden.
Ctrl + D to remove the selection boundry.

2. Shows the Layer mask. Other layers "Eye's" are off.
Layer Masks - What the Thumbnails mean (http://www.heathrowe.com/tuts/layerthumbs.asp)
Free Layer Mask Tool for Photoshop Elements 6, 7 and 8 (http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pselements/qt/layermasktool.htm)
The Essential Approach to Masking in Photoshop (http://blip.tv/file/2317124?utm_source=player_embedded)

(NOTE: You could just drag the background of your choice from another pic in, instead of making the gradient background.)

16986

3. Select a color for the Gradient. I used one from the car.
Layer> New Layer. Drag it below the old Background layer.
Select the Gradient Tool & the Reflected Gradient & drag a diagonal line across the car. Play with it 'till you get it where you want it.

4. I recalled the windows selection from the Channels Palette, Edit> Copied a selection of the gradient layer, & pasted it into a new layer.
It looked to bright to be a background seen through the windows, so Layer> Adjustment Layer> Hue & Saturation & I set the Sat at -50.

Then I added a new layer between the car & the gradient & painted in a black shadow with the brush opacity at 11% to give me more control.

16987

Done, unless you decide to retouch the car. I decided to do a bit, so I made a copy of the car layer & did the retouching on that.
You can see the final result here:
Blown '37 Willys - A Beauty with a Beast! (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=82861)

Have fun with it!
;)

EDIT:
One thing I didn't mention is that an Adjustment Layer (AL) affects ALL layers beneath it. You can avoid that by Grouping (locking) the AL only to the layer below it by Alt-clicking between the AL & the layer below it. You'll see a little down arrow in the AL after you do that. (Not shown here.)
A Group can be unlocked (guess what!) by Alt-clicking between the layers again.
EDIT2: I'm told that this is a Clipping Mask, not a Group.

This is a simplified version of the Layer & Channel Pallets to illustrate using a Layer Mask to hide part of an image. Normally, I would have put the sky image over the P-51 image. Dunno why I did the reverse here.
Mustang & B-17 + PS - Post #26 (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showpost.php?p=1014335&postcount=26)

Doing cars is comparatively easy. Here's some incentive for the bike guys:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/PhotosGuy/Forum%20Junk/Valvoline-Bike_Black-BKG_006-02.jpg?t=1277388994

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/PhotosGuy/Car%20Stuff/Mike-Yeysch_blue_34.jpg?t=1277388561

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/PhotosGuy/Car%20Stuff/Bob-Miller_ID_36.jpg?t=1277388604

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/PhotosGuy/Car%20Stuff/TerminatorBike_TonyChrome_comp02.jpg?t=1277388651

EDIT3: More links below.
.

[mdm]

very good, thanks

[Todd Jacobsen]

Okay,

Make it real tough...remove the reflection of the parking lot...

[PhotosGuy]

Make it real tough...remove the reflection of the parking lot... I'd be happy to! PM your PO# & credit card number! :D:D:D

[mdm]

Can this be done in photoshop elements 2? What is the difference between photoshop 7 and photoshop elements?

[PhotosGuy]

Can this be done in photoshop elements 2? I don't have PSE, but there are always more than one way to do things in PS! If you don't have Layer Masks, you could cut & paste the car into a clean layer, or just erase the background.
If you don't have a channel to save the selection to, make a new layer, fill the selection with black, then turn the layer off. Then you can "recall" the selection with the Magic Wand.
I did some of this stuff in an old version of PSE, so I'm sure that you can get the results now. ;-)

Other methods:

Background issues (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=587599)

Tutorial - Create a layer mask from image detail (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=100077)
And see the links in post #24. The Russell Brown video tutorial covers some good techniques using the Extract Filter, Alpha Channels, Layer Masks using Selections, using Levels to adjust the Mask, & Blur Tool on the Mask edges.

The only issue I have with it is that he passes over using the Pen Tool, which adds needless complexity & will have the average person tearing their hair out in less than 5 minutes? In this case, anything that he does here with the PT can be more easily done with the Polygonal Lasso Tool which takes about ten seconds to learn.

Dark hair on a dark background: Dermit has posted a good tutorial in:
Separating a person from the background? (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=774110)

The ultimate studio (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=637636)

[PhotosGuy]

RE: PSE (Elements)
Exposure, car lighting, layer Masks, selecting ALL in here:
some info to level out the exposure using a selection & a Layer mask, too. PS: see post #9;
PS Elements in Post # 14
A question about sky (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=338140)

EDIT: Sooner or later you'll have a problem with the clone tools where there's a light area next to a darker area. Normally I'll select the area & clone small bits at a time within the selection.
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showpost.php?p=7673809&postcount=11

Cloning in general:
Don't try to do too big an area at once.
Try sneaking up on it with a low opacity.
Try turning on/off the check boxes for aligned & use all layers. Sometimes you need to use all the cloning tools just to clean up one area.

EDIT: Free Layer Mask Tool for Photoshop Elements (http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pselements/qt/layermasktool.htm)

[PhotosGuy]

Some backgrounds we considered after I shot Jim's '68 AMX:

Some shots of Jim's '68 AMX (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=393917)

In the 2nd pic, you can also see some of the retouching I did in the side, hood, windows, and bumper.

[bill0199]

I can honestly say I have never seen a plug in for photoshop more powerful and time saving than this one:
http://www.vertustech.com/
for hair, leaves and really difficult things to select this is a MACHINE!

[PhotosGuy]

Pricey devil, isn't it? Probably worth it to a graphics professional though.

[polaris_rider]

Thanks for the tips Frank, I always appreciate them, I really like the final versions of your cars!

[PhotosGuy]

Just trying to shorten the learning curve, Jeff, but thanks anyway.

[PhotosGuy]

Around 2002 I borrowed some line drawings from a friend & played around in GIMP (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=464298). These are simple stuff, basically added gradients using Layer Masks.
Just to fill in the hole at lower right, I included an idea for a T-shirt.

321929

So, Layer Masks are powerful things to work with, & I encourage you to get friendly with them.

Pros use them extensively, as you can see here:
Porsche Bloodlines--Behind the Scenes (http://www.kontain.com/fi/#entries/entry/936) - 7 videos on retouching interior & exteriors, with more to come.

David Martin (I think!) As one of Fi’s Senior Designers, I will share some behind the scenes videos that I created. The focus is on the retouching of the images for the site. With my PSD files open, I will go deep into the layers to show the photographs before and after. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

[-Douglas-]

I included an idea for a T-shirt

awesome!

Pros use them extensively, as you can see here:http://www.kontain.com/fi/#entries/entry/936
Porsche Bloodlines--Behind the Scenes - 7 videos on retouching interior & exteriors, with more to come.

thanks for the link, those vids where great to watch and learn!

[dshankar]

Cool tutorial.

[freebird]

Bill, thats a cool tool for sure. Thx for sharing that :D

Will have to look more closely at it later.

[Shooting]

Or get the plug in called Fluid Mask, that is a lot easier.

[pdccameras]

nice tutorial! thanks

[SuperHuman21]

The Fluid Mask plugin or Fluid Mask 3, would they be able to quickly select items at large crops, such as at 85% and make it look good? Takes me too much time currently to make pathways and much less write codes for all that stuff as I'm not making millions anytime soon.