Posted: 8/2/2006 9:22:12 AM EDT
| How do I select and cut a very specific part of a picture, so that I can paste it into another? |
The marquee tool is for selecting shaoes like a square, so it doesn;t sound like the tool that you need. If you are using the magnetic lasso, try adjusting the tolerance settings, though if parts of your object don't contrast well it may have difficulty distinguishing the object from the background/ stuff around it. |
The objects are on a white background, so there is plenty of contrast. Maybe I am just not finshing the lasso operation correctly. |
Did you try the magnetic lasso? The lasso icon with the little magnet... It can be fine tuned to find the edges. |
| Yeah, if there's plenty of contrast, the magnetic lasso is your friend. Like the ways to skin a cat, there are many ways to do the same thing. Take the extract filter, for example. Learning to use the lasso tools (switching between tools, adding & subtracting your selection) is valuable. |
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The other thing you may want to look at you will find under Filter->Extract Basically, you draw a (thick) line over the edge of the object you want to extract, fill the outline, and extract ... I have had good luck with that on objects that the magnetic lasso had problems with. |
Not sure what version of photoshop you are using, but if they are non-white objects on a white background, look thru your top menus and find "select-> color range" and pick white. Then delete or mask the white out, and from there you'll have an easy time picking what you do and don't want. |
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If you're trying to quickly select an image, and there's good contrast, just use the magic wand. You can change the sensitivity if it grabs too little or too much stuff. If you want sharp, clean edges, do a quick outline of the shape with the pen tool, then blow the image way up, and use the add anchor point tool to fine tune your selection. Once you have it the way you want, go to Paths and click 'Make Selection'. |
Even though just the outline of the object is marked by the magic wand, when I copy-paste it creates a box just big enough to fit the object. I need just the object. Do I need to make the box transparent? |
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If the object's against a white background, and you want everything except the white background... do this: IF the white background is completely surrounding the image you want and is one large uninterrupted white space, skip to step #3. 1. If there are several parts of white surrounding the image but they are not interconnected, start by selecting Image/Canvas Size 2. Increase the "NEW SIZE" by an inch or so both width and height. Make sure the center "Anchor" box is checked. Choose WHITE as the Canvas Extension Color. Hit OK. This will put a solid white border around your image and tie all the white spots together as one. 3. Use the magic wand tool. Set tolerance to 1 and click anywhere in the white border. This will select 100% of the white area surrounding the image you want. 4. While that white area is selected, choose SELECT/INVERSE (or just hit Shift+CTRL+I at the same time). This will deselect the white area and select the exact opposite - the image you want. 5. Now that the image you want is selected, hit CTRL+C to copy the selected image and it will be placed on the copy clipboard. 6. Open the image you want to paste this image into and hit CTRL+V and it will be added as a new layer that you can work with. Any needed resizing is best done prior to the whole process. |
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Realizing this is an older thread, and most of the work's been done, but here are a few quick tips. To select an object from a solid white background, use one of these methods. Use the magic wand tool to select the background. If the background isn't fully selected on the first click, or if it's not fully surrounding the object, then hold the Shift key and make additional picks with the wand until all desired backgorund is selected. Now that all background is selected, click Select > Inverse to change the seselction to the desired object. Edit> Copy (Ctrl +C) switch to the target image and Edit> Paste (Ctrl + V) If the there is little or no contrast for the magnetic lasso, then switch to the polygonal lasso and zoom in tight. Click drag, click. Each click creates a new anchor point and each drag draws a straignt line between clicks. Once the image is selected, use the copy and paste method from above. Anything pasted into an existing background will automatically be placed on a new layer for futher tweaking. If a marquee tool is selected, right-click and choose Free Tarnsform to resize or rotate the layer. Holding Shift and dragging a corner will free transform the layer while preserving the aspect ratio. Once the new layer is pasted in, rough edges may be erased or smudged in to more uniformly blend the layers' edges. Photoshop is only a waste of space if you choose to not learn how to use it. With some experience and patience, there are no limits to what it can do. |
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Alpha mattes. Yep. The lasso may work, but if the surrounding pixels are similar enough in color/contrast, the magic wand tool can help out a lot. The process gets complicated for real-looking photo to photo matting. if you really want to know how to do it, IM me and maybe we can take a look at the pic you're trying to work with. It would give me a better idea to know what your image needs. |
Now that everyone here's covered the hard ways, I'll tell you the easy way. Select the entire picture you want to edit. Copy it, and paste it into a new picture with a transparent background. Still with me? Good. Now, use the eraser tool and just erase everything except what you want to copy over. It is bar none the most precise way to get exactly what you want to copy, and since the rest is transparent, you're covered. 
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Oh, you have no idea the power you hold inside, young Luke. Photoshop is the force, and you must learn to master it, or it will surely master you. 
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