Instead, I decided on a stock image which seemed manageable to remove the background easily enough… Or so I thought at the time. My plan was to use the Pen Tool to create a Mask and remove it from the background. I realized quickly (well, actually not that quickly) that this particular item was way too complicated for the Pen Tool treatment.

Here's the Tree Stock Image I started with.

All I wanted was the tree; the sky and ground had to go, including the sky behind the tiny little branches. Now, because this was for a printed poster, the image is large, and has to be very detailed even when viewed close, so there wasn’t much room to fudge the details; I needed to remove the sky from behind each and every branch…

My first attempt was to use the Pen Tool and try to mask out the tree. But after 3 hours of work, this is all I had done…

Cellphone photo of Tree Mask using Pen Tool.

This was just ridiculous, at this rate I would have been masking out this tree for 6-7 hours and been less-than-satisfied with the final result; because of this, I gave up immediately on this method (scratch 3 hours from my life… but better to save the rest than continue on with a poor method).

I ended up using Channels to do the task, and it turned out better than I thought it ever would!

How to use Channels in Photoshop:

I’m using Photoshop CS3 to explain this, but the method is very similar across the entire CS – CS5 tree (no pun intended).

Step One:

With an image (preferably the one you are trying to remove an object on) opened in Photoshop, choose Window – > Channels if it’s not already open. By default, the panel is tied in with the Layers panel.

Click on Window -> Channels to open Chennel Menu

Step Two:

Find which Channel gives the most contrast between the foreground and the background by clicking on each one Red, Green and Blue one at a time; the more contrast there is, the better your results. In my case, Blue turned out to have the most contrast.

Find the Channel which offers the most contrast

Step Three:

Using the Magic Wand Tool with a tolerance of 50 I clicked on the tree. The tolerance settings may need to be adjusted depending on your image, however this worked well for me. It did though also pick up the ground:

Select the Tree using the Magic Wand Tool with a 50 Tolerance

I simply used the Rectangle Marquee Tool to unselect the ground, leaving the tree the only selected object.

Step Four:

Head over to the Layers Panel by Clicking on Window -> Layers. You will see the image has returned to full color, yet the tree is still selected. Then it’s just a quick click of the Mask icon in the Layers Panel.

Click on Layers Panel and your object, in full-color is now selected.

Click the Mask Icon and watch the background disappear

That’s it! 5 minutes of work beats hours and hours every time!

I was then able to use the tree in my final composition, and the space between branches showed the design elements behind it!

Final Composition

All Photos are 3872 x 2176 pixels (16:9 aspect ratio), at 350 dpi (in sRGB).

Download: 5 Spring Flowers Photos (147) (ZIP file 9.2MB)

I started by taking all the images I had taken, and used Photoshop to photo-merge them into a single panorama; the graf art is very wide.

[TIP] To Photo Merge many files into one, with all the files open inside Photoshop, click File -> Automate -> Photomerge and choose the type of layout, then click “Add open files” … The box will populate with the filenames of all open documents -> Click OK

I have the finished piece available in 300 dpi JPG image at 11,629 x 1,707 pixels, and the rest available in 3 separate sections in 2,500 pix wide, 300 dpi PNG files with transparent backgrounds.

Get Graffiti Wide JPG (375) 3MB
Get Graf 01 PNG (329) 4MB	Get Graf 02 PNG (319) 3MB	Get Graf 03 PNG (303) 3MB

Check out Media Militia for a great Graffiti Brushes/Texture resource.

I decided to give away the full-resolution image as a Stock Photo for you to use.

The photo is 2329 x 1814 at 180 dpi (roughly 13 in wide x 10 in tall)

Download: Logitech_Stock_Photo (341) (985 KB ZIP)

Please enjoy!

Download:

• Leather Texture 01 (830)
• Leather Texture 02 (808)
• Leather Texture 03 (537)
• Leather Texture 04 (542)
• Leather Texture 05 (525)
• Leather Texture 06 (626)
• Leather Texture 07 (482)
• Leather Texture 08 (513)
• Leather Texture 09 (543)
• Leather Texture 10 (639)
• Leather Texture 11 (595)
• Leather Texture 12 (548)

I was really impressed by his (Caleb’s) bubble texture set I wanted to share.

Go on over to lostandtaken.com to get the textures yourself!

I have these available in high-res, in ZIP format – just after the jump.

Download: tulip_01 (ZIP 1.87 MB)
Download: tulip_02 (ZIP 3.47 MB)
Download: tulip_03 (ZIP 1.95 MB)