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

]]> http://www.orkron.com/using-channels-in-photoshop-to-remove-backgrounds/feed 3 http://www.orkron.com/free-texture-clouds http://www.orkron.com/free-texture-clouds#comments Wed, 18 Feb 2009 06:39:30 +0000 Orkron http://www.orkron.com/?p=280 We have some of the most beautiful skyscapes here on the west coast. Sometimes having a few clouds in the sky really makes quite a picture.

The day was perfect with light clouds scattered through a blue sky. The sun was beaming though, creating a great picture-perfect moment.

I took some shots for anyone who’s in need of skyscapes. Technically not textures but close!

File downloads after the jump.

Cloud 02

Cloud 03

Cloud 04

Cloud 05

Cloud 06

Cloud 07

Cloud 08

I have these available as separate downloads so you don’t have to download them all if you only want one or two (or three…).

1. Cloud 01 (zip)
2. Cloud 02 (zip)
3. Cloud 03 (zip)
4. Cloud 04 (zip)
5. Cloud 05 (zip)
6. Cloud 06 (zip)
7. Cloud 07 (zip)
8. Cloud 08 (zip)

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