Some Help With PS2 Please

[leon]

Hi guys, Is there anyone here that could show me how, in a few easy steps of how to cut a persons out of a image, in PS2, and paste it on to another image.

I have sort of done it with the lasso tool, but that has proven to be a bit tricky.

I know how to copy, and paste it once cut out, but I was hoping for a easier and more accurate procedure, surly it can be done with all this clever software around.

Many Thanks

Leon

[SteveCav (Steve)]

Leon

This link may be of some help

http://hubpages.com/hub/Photoshop-Tutorials

[okiscopey (Mike)]

Here's one method:

Use the polygon selection tool (alt-click on the lasso tool to find this alternative ... see picture below).

Enlarge the image you want to cut out so only part appears on the screen (Makes it easier to work around the edges.)

The good thing about the polygon tool is that you can interrupt its operation by (say) pressing the space bar to bring up the hand/image movement tool to re-position the image and return to the polygon when done.

Beware of double-clicking to complete the polygon when you're not all the way round.

Use a lot of single clicks, the more the merrier around the various curved bits of the person. Work just inside the image of the person ... a pixel or two.

When all is selected, you need to smooth this multi-edged selection and feather it (so it's not too sharp and stark in the other picture:

Select ... modify ... smooth (try 3 pixels or more)

Select ... modify ... feather (try 0.5 pixels)

Now you can copy and paste the selected image into the other picture.

It will of course end up in a new layer. You can go round it with the eraser tool made to be an appropriate size and transparency, or add bits with the clone tool.

Adding shadows if appropriate to the background layer can complete the effect, as can altering the colour, contrast, etc. of the pasted person. Two other things need to be changed if necessary: blurriness and graininess to match the underlying picture.

There's a limit to what you can do if the direction and type of lighting isn't similar between the two pictures. You may as well forget it if the base picture has been taken with direct flash and the person has been photographed against natural light with a nice bright 'halo' around them, for example.

More advanced methods involve paths, bezier curves and expensive dedicated software . If you're only doing this once in a while, the 'smoothed polygon' method is pretty effective.

Good luck!

[acropolite (Phil)]

For that sort of trick I use the clone tool, allows you to "rub" the desired section in to the second image. You can set the shape, hardness and diameter of the tool and if you initially set the hardness to a lowish figure you can create an image without hard edges. The clone tool is also excellent for repairing old cracked B&W images.

[leon]

Many Thanks for your kind responses, I think I will be able to handle the info.

Leon