This video will be useful for you to learn how to use the freeselect tool efficiently and will introduce the concepts of layer masks that greatly improve the edition of cutouts.
Because it uses standard tools, you could use it in Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro or other photo editing software with a decent toolbox. Here, the demo is done with Gimp, but I hope you’ll be able to see how to do this with your preferred editing software.
The idea is quite simple and uses the fact that usually the front feature is contrasting with the background and often has a good contrast. It works in 4 steps:
- draw a rough selection around the object to cut out with the free select tool,
- change to the fuzzy select (magic wand) tool and in the options, set the threshold quite hight — around 30 should do it — and switch to substract mode,
- click on the background around the object to cut out to deselect it,
- transfer the selection to a layer mask and do corrections by painting in the mask.
1For Gimp Users
The Gimp in version over 2.4 introduces a new tool for extracting foreground object that is even easier to use but that is not discussed here. If you want to see how it works, check out this google video:
