Photoshop's Lasso Tool

any tips on selecting specific parts of an image in photoshop? here's what I was trying to do:

http://www.pbase.com/i​mage/17991722

i apologize for the poor quality of the uploaded picture., but you get the idea. I can't seem to get a good "lasso" of just the child on the bike - there's always a green halo from the grass thats leftover. Anybody have any pointers?

have you tried the magic wand, some of the background seems that it could work, however my fav selecting techniques is the extract filter.

What's the extract filter?

Use a combination of the Magic wand,. and doing it by hand,.. togle the "Add to selection" buttons so that as you lasso more of the pic it gets added to the selection rather making a new oine.

Remember to look in the "Selection" drop down menu where you can set the degree to which you can feather the selection,. I think this may be where your green grass halo problem is coming from.

FWIW, there's a nice series of free online tutorials for Photoshop here:

http://graphicssoft.ab​out.com/library/course​/bllps5out.htm

Sheri

I find the extract tool a little hard to work with at times and sometimes gives unpredictable results. I find using the Pen tool and/or drawing with the lasso tool using a wacom tablet easier to work with.

the extract filter is under filter in PS7, I like it because you dont have to be precise when you use it and is easy to clean up afterwards. Although if you never used it, this photo might not be the one to practice. There are many great tutorial on the subject of selection including Apple computers web site has one.

A simple way of doing this:
- duplicate layer and make top layer your B&W
- use the eraser tool on the top layer to bring back the boy and bike.

Easiest way..

Quick Mask--

under the tool bar on the left
under the 2 colour boxes there should be two rectangles with circles in them,

1-click on the paintbrush tool and select a size you want, then select the colour black as the forefront colour

2-click the rectangle with the circle on it under the colour boxes, click the one on the right

then paint (should be a transarent red that you see when u paint) the area you want to be selected or the area you want to do work on..

then click on the other rectangle with circle in it when done... and go up to the button at the top.. click Select, then Inverse

and your painted area turns into a selection (just make sure your on the right layer when u go towork on it)

This is how I do this operation (maybe not the best way, but works pretty well):

1. Select the part I want to keep in color with the lasso tool as best as I can.
2. Promote the selection to a layer.
3. Change the color of the background to b/w (sepia turns out nicely sometimes too!)
4. In the layers, make the background layer hidden so you only see the color layer.
5. Use the eraser tool to touch up your selection so your edges are better.

That has worked pretty well for me. I did this example in PSE2.0

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