Cropping images in photoshop

[Chemixtry]

I've seen several cool marquees where people will layer several characters on top of one another (like Snaakes). In photoshop is there a simple tool that will crop around a picture or do you have to trace around it manually? For example say i want Heihachi and Iori next to one another. If I just copy from the source there is a large white block around them. What is the best way to do this?

[versapak]

Use the magic wand tool (W), and click in the white area. This will select all that white background.

You will prolly want to go in and fine tune the selection, as it will sometimes select more or less than you'd like.

[spara]

After the area you want to get rid of is selected, then hit the delete key or use the cut command. This will erase all of the white. If you just want to select the image portion. many times you can click the white area with the magic wand, then select and inverse. This will pick everything except the white. Works pretty quickly on most objects.

I ususally like to work with an image on it's own. Meaning I open it by itself and do all the masking, erasing, etc. When you have it like you want it, simply drag and drop it into your other open collage. It will automatically make a new layer for it.

Craig

[njchan]

this is great information for me (new to photoshop) ... thanks for the info ... I'll be sure to try it out.

[Chemixtry]

Thanks for the info! It worked great.   Now if I could just master vectorizing I would be in good shape.

[neuromancer]

depending on the image you're trying to isolate, after you magic wand it, there will frequently be rough edges and other stuff.

Take the brush tool with soft edges and paint over the part you want to eliminate with white paint.

The eraser tool will work too, but it will make a hard edge.

For layering them all together, Illustrator is great, because you can mix and match images with different dpi, and scale them without resampling them.

Bob

[spara]

Also after selecting with the magic wand, if the edges look rough or there is too much junk, use the select and contract command to shrink the selection a few pixels at a time until the edge is clean.

Craig

[thumbninja]

Another way to go (with that particular image situation) is to go into layer blending options: You can pull the arrow at the white end of the slidebar (right side) in just a tad, and all the pure white pixels will be invisible in the multi-layer view.

[simplygriff]

Another way to go (with that particular image situation) is to go into layer blending options: You can pull the arrow at the white end of the slidebar (right side) in just a tad, and all the pure white pixels will be invisible in the multi-layer view.

That could force you to lose parts of the hair and belt on Heiachi?  They're white too.
-G

[thumbninja]

If it whites out to 100%, yes. But a good image shouldn't have any 100% whites or 100% blacks to start with. The histogram should ramp off at BOTH end of the spectrum for maximum detail retention.

Photshop is one of those "20 ways to do the same thing" programs. With the 100% white problem (you can't control a lot of the images you get), my personal approach for the image would be:

1: Go to levels and bring down the white output by 1 level (from 255 to 254) it is not very noticable even to the best eyes.

2: magic wand the surrounding areas you want as backgroud and delete it (or change to 255 white)

3: paste in, blend option out the white, and zoom in massively to trim bits fom the antialias to white background (or use the burn tool carefully to bring the tone down)

A few things to remember about image work in PS:

EVERY time you do anything to an image, you lose detail. Every color shift, tonal change, and (obviously) distortion. This also includes simply rotating the canvas. PS reinterpolates the image when you do this.

Practice Levels and Curves. Stop using Brightness/Contrast! B/C pushes the tonal grade off the map one way or the other, and looks "forced"

Always do as much as you can to an image before you resample an image. Most people do this, but there are still some who do all sorts of work in the final resolution. (there are some exceptions to this of course)

ALWAYS do collage work before resizing! If you have a character sharply put on a white background, and you resize, then copy onto a darker bg, the brighter anti-alias from the resized original will plague the new image.

Enough of a rant for one post. I'm sure a lot of you know most of this stuff, but maybe there are some out there who still don't know. I've been using PS for a decade, and I'm just relaying some of the lessons I learned the hard way.

Keith