cropping in adobe photoshop

Here are the steps I did, using Fireworks MX on a PC:

1) Open the image in fireworks

2) Choose the Magic Wand Tool (Press W)

3) Select all of the image to start with by pressing CTRL-A

4) Set the tool settings to:
Tolerance: 25
Edge: Antialias

5) Holding down ALT (to do subtraction), click on the black area and the table

6) Depending on where you hit on the table, may have to do it in a couple of places. to get rid of it all.

7) (Optional) Use the Laso Tool (Press L) and while holding down ALT, go around the left out places, or trim around where two colors may come together and the Magic Wand may not have grabbed.

Choose SELECT -> Feather... from the top menu. Here I did a level of 3, you will have to play with it to see what you like the best.

9) Press CTRL-C (to copy the selected) and then CTRL-V (to paste as a new item). This will create a new object of just what you had selected.

10) In the Layers Window, (Press F2 to display if it's not already), and delete the bottom copy of the picture (the original copy).

11) You should now be left with the cropped item and be able to edit/save as you do other images.

The final can be seen here: http://wtvgames.com/test2.jpg

You can play with other settings to make the edges more crisp, etc. but this is the basics for it. Hope this helps.

-Greg

Photoshop does have a lot more options that would probably get you a more accurate selection (no dark fuzzy outline. You can also see where the table met the black background on there).

Try:

- Magic wand tool (use quick mask to fix up selection)
- Layer > Matting > defringe or remove black matting (will get rid of that dark outline)
- magnetic lasso (similar to what is described above)
- Image > extract

There are other ways to do this as well but I can't remember what they are. I had the best results with your image using Image > extract. Just use the highlighter to select the edge of the bottle, then use the fill tool to fill in what you want to keep. Works very well - no dark outline. A few artifacts around the bottom but those were easily erased.

cartess3 wrote: i have a crazy question, i have about 12 images all which look like this for the most part: http://www.wearthegospel.com/images/test1.jpg

I just want the image and not the background or cloth color, just the image in a white background. Is there an easy way to do this, I have photoshop 6, i never really used it, but primarily used fireworks, and I don't know how to do it there either.

Could someone give me some detailed instructions?

thanks

The best way(IMHO) is with the pen tool. Once you selct the pen tool you need to select the "paths" option on the pen tool options bar. It has a square with teh pen tool inside it.

You can then "click" points around the iobject you want to crop out. I would simply clcik on the edges all the way around the bottle in your test pictures. Once you get back to the starting point your cursor should change in to a circle, this allows you to complete the chain so to speak.

Right click(Apple Option on a MAC I beleive) in the center of the image and choose "make selction". It will them ask you if you want to feather the selected area - you can set this to zero and click ok.

You can now cut the selected area out of the background.

Thsi method is more accurate and faster for me than the extract tool or eraser tool. This wokrs much better than teh magic wand tool fro images that are on a more diverse background too.

You dont need to mess with tolerance or "select similar".

In photoshop:

1) open image
2) select magic wand tool.
3) with this magic wand tool select the area you want to turn into white back ground.
4) you found that specific area selected.
5) now fill white color in this selection.