I’m trying to figure out how to cut out a complex image from a black background. The main problem is it’s got some hard and very soft edges (smoke). I just can’t figure out how to do both.

I’m using CS5.. pretty literate on it so if you have any tips feel fee to get technical! I’ll do my best to figure it out.

All help would be gratefully received. 😀

M.

Channels are your friend I would say – go a’Googling for help.

Do your cutout, either manually with the lasso or auto with the magic wand and fine tune the edges with the Refine Edge option. The feather option will be useful in this instance.

There will no doubt be some jiggery pokery required, you might also have to use and mask several layers to get the effect you are after. Using ‘Screen’ as a transparency effect on the smoke layer may help it when it sits on your new background.

With some effort it is no doubt possible to do exactly what you want.

You’re going to struggle with the smoke with the transparency it has. I trialled a plug in which claimed to be able to remove the background through soap bubbles in the air. It failed to be that good.

I have never found anything as good as hand drawing in a clipping path with the pen tool, but I’ve been limited to hard edges (bikes mostly, about 3-5 hours per bike…). Would it possible to add the smoke back onto the image once clipped out? Might be easier than trying to extract just the smoke…

What i tend to do is do a couple or a few cut outs (manually of course) and build it up as layers. Time consuming but better results. Do the in-focus stuff and keep it sharp. Use this as a top layer

Then do another cut out with a wider area and drop the layer in behind it. You could blur it a bit to give it a bit of depth.Don’t feather it. It looks crap. Always. Use the blur tool to work on small areas. Don’t just apply a blur filter.

Build up your layers like that with as many as you require

Don’t feather it. It looks crap. Always.

Sorry mate, but disagree. Feather is exactly the ticket here for smoke imho.

OK it was a sweeping generalisation. Not like me 😉

You’d get a better result though from working on individual elements rather than applying blanket filters IMHO

No worries Binners 😆

WOW…thanks for all the advice!

I’m going to try several solutions and see what works out best…. I have a feeling that working on the individual elements will be the solution…all be it the time consuming one.

Thanks again everyone. 🙂

Smoke’s a bugger, as is fur and hair. Clipping paths on hard edges are the best way to go there, clicking and dragging on nodes at corners to get handles you can pull to get clean corners and curves on the fly, instead of just clicking corners all the way round then going back and adjusting them is how I always used to do it. Funny, I always used to get the jobs with all the clipping paths…
Trial and error with masks and layers and soft brushes for the smoke. Good luck.

Cheers CountZero.

Despite being a photographer I sometimes get roped into doing cut outs when things are quiet! But never had to deal with such a variety of edges….personal project tho so I think you are right…trial and error…mostly error….

With photoshop its all trial and error. You have happy accidents too though. Where you think “that wasn’t what i wanted to do, but it looks pretty good’

Have fun with it. Let us know how it goes

Cheers binners…. Currently in the middle of a cut out that might take years!! But yeah happy accidents… if there is one thing photoshop has taught me it’s that there is no ‘right way’ of doing it. Thanks for your advice…I will try and post a before and after!

Thanks guys 🙂