Shutterstock Photographer Forum :: View topic - Tutorial : Isolating objects in Photoshop

joseph · Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 6:39 am

Excellent tutorial.
Simple step by step...
Hey, good info even for an old dog.

Thanks Erin

peaz · Joined: 23 Nov 2004 Posts: 59 Location: Malaysia

My brother taught me to use the pen tool to draw out a path. After that, convert it into a selection and feather by about 2 pixels. Then inverse the selection and clear that area out.

Voila. White out product shot with a clipping path. Kill two birds with one stone.

But there's a bit of learning curve to pick up the pen tool. But it's worth it since it's used a lot when drawing vectors in illustrator too!

Johnlric · Joined: 09 Apr 2005 Posts: 8 Location: Ball ground, GA

I have tried everything I can think of to isolate shots like these. The fur just dosent want to cooperate. I can't get happy with my results. Here is the image.

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-338314.html
Thanks for any suggestions.

charmina · Joined: 27 May 2005 Posts: 156 Location: Norway

About the squirrel and any other furry things:

Blow up to at least 200%.

Erase the background using any tool of your preference, just be sure to erase all areas containg any background color, usually this includes the entire outer furry part of the coat. Use an appropriate amount of feather to soften the edges quite a bit (depends very much upon the image at hand) so you have to test and find out for yourself).

Now, the best part: Use the brush tool to paint back the fur! Vary pixels after how thick the single hairs are (usually 1 or 2 pxls). It takes a while, but it is quite easy. Make sure not all hairs are the same length and in the same direction. Make it look natural. Open the original image (small size) for reference as you paint.

Go over all the hairs again using the smudge tool to fade out the end of each hair.

With this method you can put whiskers back on a cat, long hair on the squirrel's tail, anything!

nemosdad · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 653 Location: Wakefield, RI

I've been struggling to learn how to isolate simple objects using the GIMP. I'm especially having difficulty obtaining clean edges. I'm a complete beginner and very frustrated with the process. Can someone kindly offer a simple step-by-step procedure or direct me to a great tutorial? I'd really appreciate any assistance. Thanks.

Pierdelune · Joined: 09 Nov 2004 Posts: 104

Thanks everybody for such tips.
I am ignorant, what is a GMP

I used polygon tools Andres on a pic and it had been rejected on IS, they suggest me to use Pen tools only to remove bckground.
Quite difficult these pen tools and it takes time before properly handying it.

I am also looking for tips to make silhouette with one of my image. If anyone can suggest something about it.

Thanks a lot

margaret · Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 1451 Location: Lancashire, U.K.

This is my next idea to try.
I have used white paper background to isolate objects and have recently bought photoshop3 elements.. all I can afford at the moment.
All the tips and advice are so useful. I am going to try them out.
Regards and thanks
Margaret

Pete Bax · Joined: 30 Jan 2005 Posts: 1238 Location: Brighton England

Just read an interesting article by a newspaper photographer who says and I agree with him that what ever method you use you will always get some pixel distortion around the edges due to some reason to do with pixels. He suggests when you have finished blow it up and go round gently with the cloning brush both sides. He shows an example of one of the most washed out photos I have ever seen a real dustbin job and by the time he had finished with corrective layers it looked fantastic, fit for the front page. His name is Steve Caplin worth looking him up. Corrective layers will certainly give you the showroom finish we are all looking for.

michellejones · Joined: 31 Aug 2005 Posts: 11 Location: Ludlow, Shropshire

Do you have a link to that article handy? It sounds like a fantastic read. Thank you guy's for putting this Tut on isolation up!

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The Forum Lurker...

drilea · Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Posts: 2 Location: Romania

Hello This is my first post. Here are three of my isolated objects photos for the december contest :

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-818044.html

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-831558.html

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-818030.html

feztaa · Joined: 14 May 2005 Posts: 616 Location: Canadia, eh?

Wrong thread.

davidcrehner · Joined: 20 Jul 2005 Posts: 4839

Yes, not to mention the backgrounds are not white. :-)

mikanainens · Joined: 02 Feb 2006 Posts: 1

Hi Dianne,

My name is Miks and I'm newcomer here (as pictures
author). I am photographer-amateur for many years, my favorite objects are - still lifes, landscapes,social scenes and portraits. I have'nt experience to sell pictures and need some advice about selling pics and info for your real statistics in selling matter (if you are ready tell me it).

I just start to upgrade my "hardwares" and will change my 35 mm SLR for digital SLR.

I would be glad to co-operate with you for future.
My e-mail: m_ignats@hotmail.com.

With regards from Latvia,

Miks (Michael) Ignats

vieth · Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 4:23 pm

The white paintbrush technique is a nice method to teach beginners because the concept is easy to grasp. But you'll be much better served by investing a little bit of time and learning to use the pen tool and paths which are used together to isolate subjects the "professional" way. The benefits of learning the pen tool and paths is that you'll be learning the method that is standard and expected in art/creative departments that use photoshop. More benefits include:
1. It's much faster once you get the hang of it.
2. You're not editing the image, just creating a path.
3. The pen tool allows fast creation of precise curves, which is not possible with the paintbrush tool.
4. Once you create a path using the pen tool, you can save the path and use it later. For example, one time you might want to use the path to create a white background, and another time you might want to create a color background, and another time you might want to just cut out the background altogether and make it transparent so you can overlay the subject on top of another image--you cannot do this with the paintbrush tool.
5. With paths, you can stop when you're half finished and resume your work later by adding on to the path. This is not as conveniently done with the paintbrush method.
6. With paths, you can create the path, save it, and then apply different degrees of feathering to the selection created with the path, experimenting with the degree of feathering that is right for you. Whereas with the paintbrush method, you have to choose the hardness of the paintbrush in the beginning, and then you're stuck with the result.

You can learn all about the pen tool and paths in Photoshop's built-in help menu.

Like I said. Do yourself a favor.

- John