Explore the process of delicately manipulating a digital image in Photoshop, focusing on the removal of certain elements from the background of the image. Understand the considerations and decisions involved in using resolution and determining the intended purpose of an image.
Key Insights
- The article provides a step-by-step walkthrough of removing elements from the background of an image in Photoshop, highlighting the use of the polygonal lasso tool.
- The tutorial stresses the importance of understanding the intended use of an image and the resolution it will be presented in, as this will impact decisions on the extent of detail required in the manipulation process.
- It also elaborates on how context can affect the precision required in manipulating images; for instance, if an element is to be placed on a white background in large size, more specific pixel manipulation may be needed as compared to when the element is to be used in the background of another image and shrunk in size.
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In this video, we’ll continue removing the crane from the background of the foreground crane. Before we begin, let’s talk a little bit about how this image will be used.
Currently, we’re trying to remove the foreground crane so we can place it in the background of our London scene.
Given this use, we won’t be too specific about the details we leave out since the final image will be relatively small.
However, these are decisions you’ll need to make using Photoshop, understanding how much resolution you’ll use for the image and its intended purpose.
If we needed this crane to sit on a white background and be very large, we might be more specific about which pixels we keep and remove.
However, if we’re using it in the background of an image and shrinking it down, we can be more lenient about cutting out pieces of the background.
Let’s begin and go through this process step by step, starting with removing the back crane, beginning with the tower on the right-hand side.
We’ll use the Polygonal Lasso Tool. Now, let’s zoom in.
We’ll scroll to the right, and first, we’ll remove the tower on the right-hand side.
To do this, let’s zoom in closely, and now we’ll simply remove it.
We’ll draw a shape, starting on the left-hand side, and draw up into the corner, then drag multiple times to create points.
We’ll drag and create points until we reach the bottom section, then close off our polygon when we see the circle to the right of the Polygonal Lasso.
We’ll click, then fill by right-clicking, selecting Fill, choosing Black, and clicking OK.
Even though we haven’t removed the entire tower, this gives us more space to work with.
We can then quickly hit CTRL D to deselect and draw a lasso around the entire bottom section.
Here, we’ll select the whole thing, right-click, select Fill, choose Black, and hit ENTER.
We’ve now removed the right tower from our image. Now, let’s work on the bottom left-hand side.
Let’s zoom in a little closer and move to the left. Next, we’ll remove the bottom left end of the crane from our booth.
Using the Polygonal Lasso Tool, we’ll click and add points, then come over to the right and continue adding points.
Sometimes, it can be tricky to figure out where one point ends and the next begins.
However, in this case, it’s not too important since the small details won’t be visible in the final image.
We’ll right-click, click Fill, and hit ENTER. We’ve now removed the left-hand side.
I’ll hit CTRL D to deselect, and this looks good.
If we want to touch it up, we’ll zoom in a little closer and remove this side.
Right-click, click Fill, hit OK, and I’ll just soften these edges.
At this point, I’ll go through the process of how I would remove this, and you can either do this at your own pace or follow along with me.
As you can see, the only section left is the top right, and we’ll complete that in the next video.
See you then!