Extracting People from a Background
Matt shows us a couple of tricks for using the Magic Extractor tool and for cleaning up selections when you want to remove someone from a photo to put them on a different background.
(…and don’t forget the link to this video’s cheatsheet, below.)
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Related Tags: feathering, Magic Extractor tool, making selections
James
February 16, 2011 at 4:57 pm
It’s always good to pick up a new “trick” for making better selections. Thanks, Matt!
Patricia
February 16, 2011 at 9:46 pm
Thank you very much…extremely helpful!
George
February 17, 2011 at 5:37 am
Excellent trick!
Thanks.
Rose
February 17, 2011 at 2:19 pm
Thanks for this – very helpful.
Pat
February 17, 2011 at 3:39 pm
Thank you…finally able to understand the entire concept.
P.G.
February 19, 2011 at 10:56 am
Superb! Thanks.
Clarke
February 20, 2011 at 2:26 pm
Excellent tutorial Matt!!
Gwen
February 21, 2011 at 1:17 pm
Thanks for this. I now feel I can get to my photos and do this without extreme terror of making a huge mess!
Heriberto
February 23, 2011 at 6:09 pm
Really good tip,glad to be a subscriber.
Pamela
February 24, 2011 at 9:13 am
Thanks for all these wonderful tips! I am a new subscriber and I LOVE all the tutorials and information available here. This resource has proved invaluable to me and has made me a very happy camper! :-)
The fact that you have taken the time to show little tips like this allows users to take their efforts to the next level. Thank you, thank you.
Stefanie
February 25, 2011 at 10:12 am
I am COMPLETELY NEW to Elements OR any photo-editing program for that matter. I appreciate the tutorials but wish it would take people like me into consideration and be more specific in how to use the tools and where they are. As I have to learn EVERYTHING it is very frustrating for me to have to look through books and phone friends just to find out I have to click and HOLD the marque-key to get to the oval shape, when I am only told to click on it.
Mike
February 28, 2011 at 7:08 am
Hi Stefanie-
Thanks for you comment. If you’re not opposed to spending about $40, our DVD called Learn Elements Today sounds like exactly what you’re looking for. You can check it out here, and watch a couple of the videos for free, to see if it might meet your needs. I’m the instructor on the DVD, so if you have any questions about it, don’t hesitate to ask either me, or Rick LePage, the EIC. http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/products/dvd/learn_elements_today.html
Oh, and one other way to get to all the nested tools is to right-click the tool, along with click and hold. :)
Mike
Rudy
February 28, 2011 at 10:57 am
Thanks Matt, loved it. What a great to clean up the edges.
Herbert
February 28, 2011 at 2:43 pm
This is an exciting tool, and I am trying to follow along. But, I do not know how to set up a different background. Also, I do not know how to move the image to a new background. Are tutorials availalble to help me learn how to do these two steps? Thank you, Herbert
Raul
March 3, 2011 at 10:36 am
Excellent tutorial.
Carla
March 4, 2011 at 8:25 pm
Thanks Matt, very helpful!
Katherine
March 8, 2011 at 6:25 am
That was a great (and simple) tip about deleting the contracted, feathered edge.
But has no one else noticed that the the white portion of the girl’s braided trim over on the left side of the photo wasn’t extracted along with the rest of her image and you can see background where you should have the white part of the braid? How do you deal with that in the Magic Extractor? Perhaps the video could be redone to add dealing with that problem to the work flow. Thanks.
Gloria
March 8, 2011 at 3:11 pm
awesome video!!! Thanks for posting it :)
Timothy
March 11, 2011 at 6:30 pm
Good stuff!
Robert
March 23, 2011 at 1:18 pm
Great help!! I’ve struggled with this problem. :)
Laton J
March 25, 2011 at 6:37 am
Thanks Matt, it is easy for me to follow the cheatsheet, I apprecaite very much.
Gisele
March 27, 2011 at 2:54 pm
Excellent tutorial, but one suggestion….the white coat made it a bit difficult for me to follow along when you were cleaning up the edges. At first I didn’t realize that the coat was white (not sure why, it’s obviously white), because you were zoomed in around her face. It seemed almost like the white was part of a cut-out and not supposed to be there. Not sure if I am explaining that in a way that makes sense, but basically I think something with a colored edge (other than white) would have made this clearer.
Rick LePage
March 27, 2011 at 2:59 pm
That’s a helpful comment, Gisele. since we’ve gotten quite a bit of interest in this topic, we’ll probably be doing more tutorials like this, and it’s worth paying attention to details like this.
Thanks,
Rick
Annette
April 4, 2011 at 5:34 pm
Thank you for this tip – I am very eager to try it out. If the girl did not have a hat and coat, and only her hair was visible against the background – could you use this technique for her hair effectively?
robert
April 21, 2011 at 12:26 pm
I only subscribed yesterday. I wish I had done it two years ago. This video and the others I have browsed form a rich and easily accessible learning base.
Thanks so much!!!
Doug
April 24, 2011 at 8:01 pm
Great topic and well done. Been struggling with this process and the video made the solution very clear. Cheat sheet a good addition as I’ll probably forget a step or two later. This is a keeper.
Diane
May 15, 2011 at 4:34 am
Great video, but a cheat sheet would be a welcome addition.
Karen
July 17, 2011 at 12:08 pm
This was great. I always loved the Magic Extractor tool, but I was erasing the edges. This tip Matt shows about the edges is really helpful. I am trying it on a project right now. I am glad I found this and thanks Matt for the tip!
Bajes
September 1, 2011 at 2:18 pm
This was a great video. I will most likely use often..
Thank you