most inspired

Introduction
One of the most common uses of Photoshop is to extract images from their backgrounds, so that they can be introduced into various other projects. There are many ways to accomplish this task, whether through use of the pen tool, magic wand or magic lasso, however there is a tool that is both effective and easy to use which will erase  This tutorial aims to educate the reader about the Background Eraser Tool, as well as how to manipulate colors and lighting in Photoshop.

Preface
This tutorial was completed using Photoshop CS4 although previous Creative Suite versions should also work appropriately.

Programs you will need:
Adobe Photoshop CS4

Files Used
http://www.mostinspired.com/blog/?attachment_id=1633

Step 1

Open the parrot image in Photoshop.

Step 2

Go to the toolbar and find the eraser tool. Click and hold on the icon until a set of three erasers appear. Click on the Background Eraser Tool.

Step 3

Choose a preferred brush size. A 70 px size brush was used in this tutorial. Also, make certain that the limits are set to Find Edges, the Sampling is Continuous, and the Tolerance at about 15%.

Step 4

Begin to erase around the edges of the parrot. Keep the small “plus sign” in the center of the tool in the background area, to avoid erasing parts of the parrot. The erased parts will look bumpy and circular, but erasing the edges as close as possible is the goal here. This process could take a while depending on experience, so be patient and eventually you will get the hang of it.

Step 5

Once there is a nicely sized border around the parrot, delete the rest of the background. You can use marquees, the magic wand tool, or eraser tool to accomplish this.

Step 6

The parrot’s plumage is very nice, but the next goal is to really exaggerate the colors and make them stand out. Go to Image > Adjustments > Vibrance and change the settings to +100 on Vibrance and +20 on Saturation. This will allow the subtile colors in the photo to stand out. This can best be seen on the top of the parrot’s beak, with the blue color now becoming more prominent.

Step 7

Now that the colors have been brought out, many different colored variants for the parrot may be applied. Go to Image > Adjustments > Selective Color and play with the settings there. Below are a few examples of what can be achieved, and the methods used to achieve them.

There are thousands of combinations that can be achieved through this process. Whichever color(s) that the parrot becomes is up to you!

If you have any questions or comments about this tutorial, feel free to e-mail me at matthew.bitley@gmail.com. Thanks for reading!