Sorry for the audio. I did it on my laptop with no external mic. So yes, you might want to crank it up a bit. If I have more time I'll try to redo the audio.

I've never used the plugin to extract. I figured what's in PS is good enough. It does take a while but I love the process.

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Savitri

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Please visit my gallery or my blog I have a few tutorials on digiscrapping and more will be added each week.

I agree.. a bit pricey.. but then again, as a pro photographer - I have easily made back the cost of program with a single project so for me all the plugin/addons I purchase make sense - especially if I can use it to quickly get through a project to move on to the next one.

The pen tool though is a great choice.. just time consuming and not all that accurate for things like hair and tree branches.. if you have an easy extraction, it works well.. for more detail, you'll lose a lot without 300-400% zoom and lots of time.

Has any of you read Scott Kelby's The Channel Book. He talks about how to use channels for making selections (read extractions) using the channels in photoshop. It is really interesting and does take into account harder to extract images like hair and trees. And after buying the book (or borrowing it) its free! But the pen is the way I started out too, and the tutorial is great for showing important steps like duplicating the background and inverting the selection (stuff I forgot to do a couple of times - do'h)!

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I always welcome cc of my LOs!! My work is like me- in progress!

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Yes.. Scott Kelby's Channel book is rather good - it's surprisingly original since he loves to cut/paste new books together from his own previous books in what seems to be a monthly tradition! Buy one Kelby and you'll be all set...

you can certainly do a lot with native photoshop tools.. pens, channels, paths, etc.. the real question is - what is the best tool to the job the most effectively and efficiently. If you are working on a single photo and have the time, yes, normal photoshop is great and the tools wonderful. When I need to batch remove trees, people, or backgrounds on multiple photos, masking tools are priceless.

If I were to do batch work, yes, I'd spend the $$ on some 30 second software. But for digital scrapbooking, I think what's in Photoshop is great. If you have a detail image, then you either spend the time learning or go to plan B.

I'm all about easy and quick with what I have so I go between the extraction tool, pen, lasso, masking, etc... Plus, after I add all the elements, most if not all of the imperfections are not too visible to the eyes -- or only visible to your eyes

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Savitri

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Please visit my gallery or my blog I have a few tutorials on digiscrapping and more will be added each week.

agreed.. only, I wish it did only take 30 seconds even with the plugins! It can still take me almost an hour to perfect an extraction for a client.

I wish I could justify buying that in my head. I want it just to play with it! I love new "toys".

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Serena Thomas

Pesto, what you described, kind of sounds like the extraction tool in CS3. How does the plugin you are using differ from the extraction tool? (I was thinking you had CS3, so that's what I asked)

I also have the Channels Book and think it's a great book.

Neat video by the way~