|
From YourSITE.com *Program Basic Digital Image Pro 10 This tutorial demonstrates only one way of removing and altering a distracting background in a photograph. The method you choose depends largely on the prominence of the main subject and how cluttered the background is. *This tutorial may also be adapted for DIP V9 Select your photograph. Ensure you work on a duplicate copy to protect your original by choosing Edit>Duplicate Whole Picture. In my image there are several distracting elements such as the blue swing and the edge of the picnic rug. My plan is to blur the background slightly to create a shorter depth of field. However, even with that, the brighter colors will still be distracting so I am first going to remove those from my photograph. To remove the picnic rug in the left hand bottom corner I am going to use the Smart Erase tool. This tool works best for small single objects.
From the toolbar menu select Touch up > Smart Erase. You are asked to trace around the area you wish to erase. It is recommended you leave a margin around the object rather than tracing the edges. The line circle shows the area I have selected. When you are happy with your selection area, choose Fill-In. The program automatically uses parts of the image adjacent to fill in the area.
If you find that the smart erase tool has not filled in the space correctly you can try again “Reset” or use the clone tool to patch over the areas the smart erase did not cover well. When the results are acceptable choose “Done” The smart erase tool does not work well for the blue swing and cloning would be difficult because of the lines in the fence and roof behind it. So I am going to remove its color instead. Select the magic wand tool
Click on the color, and see how much area is selected. At 0 tolerance only a small area of the swing is selected, so I increased the setting by about 20 point each time until I found the tolerance level that selected the most amount of area. In this case, the tolerance level is set to 70. The yellow rope knots also need to be added to the selection. Choose the small + sign under selection modes and click on the yellow. Continue this process for any additional areas not selected. You can alter, the tolerance level for each area. To get rid of the blue choose Effects > Black and white. Click on the object tool
To apply an effect to the background I first need to separate my subject (the girl with the skateboard) from it. Zoom in and select a spot to start from. You can use either the edge finder or the freehand tool to make the selection. I prefer to use the freehand tool. Select the tool When you are happy with your selection, select Feather and enter a value (I generally select only 2 or 3) to soften the edges. Then choose Edit> Copy and Edit> Paste to separate the subject from the background. In the stack you will see your original image and the new selection you have created.
Click on the original image and choose Touch Up> Blur > Gaussian Blur. Increase the amount of blur as desired and choose Done, to apply. If the results are not what you are looking for you could also choose Effects> Back and White, or a apply a filter or other effect as desired. You could also take your new selection and place them on a new background.
*Credit: Mountain Road photograph: Digital Image Pro gallery © Copyright 2003-2005 by Scrapbook-Bytes; & original creator/s of tutorials/articles |
and make sure “smooth edges” is ticked. I don't want the tool to select areas such as the denim shorts which is similar in color to the swing so I select contiguous. 
and then anywhere in the canvas to apply the effect. You can use your clone tool to remove any stray pieces of color if desired. 
from the selection dock. The Freehand tool palette appears. Start at any point and slowly trace around the subject. You can trace by keeping the left mouse button held down or you can click between points to create a straight line, or use a combination of these. If you make an error select Edit> Undo. You can remove or neaten edges using the transparency brush Effects> Transparency>Transparency Brush set at 100% opacity.
