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Background Change Using the Magnetic Lasso Tool
Wouldn’t it be nice to turn back the clock and get a snapshot beside Marilyn Monroe – without the silly cardboard cutouts? Or to experiment with what we’d look like if we had a mountain behind us instead of the kitchen counter? As always, digital manipulation makes anything possible. Replacing the background of images is very easy in Photoshop, and this is the purpose of our tutorial.
| Difficulty Level: |
Beginner - Intermediate |
Time Needed: |
10-20 Minutes |
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PDF Version: |
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| 1 |
Open Two Images
Open two images; a portrait and a background, of your choice – or borrow the stock photos (from Hemera.com and StockByte.com) I’m using below. |
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| 2 |
Combine Canvases
Instead of the people in the background, I think it would be much more dramatic to make it appear as if the young man is standing in front of the breakers.
So our first step is to place the two images into the same canvas, on separate layers.
The easiest way to go is to grab your “Move” tool and just drag the image of the man into the canvas containing the breakers – it will place each on its own separate layer, with the man on top. |
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| 3 |
Resize
Because the two images are such different sizes, it is necessary to resize the image of the man to a closer fit. With your “Move” tool still selected, click “Edit, Free Transform” and use the square “handles” to bring the image of the man into closer size with the breakers.
*Note*: One of those ... if we only knew then moments - do you see how the guy in this picture gets a lil deformed? You can prevent that happening by holding the "Shift" key down on your keyboard when you resize your image. But hey ... go easy on me - this tutorial was originally written about 7 years ago. |
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| 4 |
Apply the Transformation
Click the “Move” tool again to get out of the Free Transform mode. A dialogue will ask if you want to apply the changes – choose “Yes” and continue on. |
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| 5 |
Zoom Way In
Our next step is to actually “remove” the background that we don’t want. It will help if you zoom in on the image (I have zoomed to 300%) before you get started. |
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| 6 |
Magnetic Lasso
Grab your “Magnetic Lasso” tool (Click the lasso tool, right-click, select the Magnetic Lasso). Click once at the top left of the man’s hair and move your mouse downward. What you should find is that the lasso follows the direction of your movement but “clings” to the color you first started with. In this way, you can move around the man’s shoulder and arm, the upper curve of the rail, and back around the image to the starting point at his hair – all without clicking a thousand times or trying in vain to maintain a steady selection. |
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| 7 |
Erase
Once the selection has been made, hit the “Backspace” key on your keyboard – you will see the breakers start peeking through. Repeat this process to remove each of the pieces of the background you don’t want to keep |
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| 8 |
Clean It Up
There are still a few rough edges, and a couple of spots which weren’t easy to grab with the marquee. The easiest way of correcting this is to zoom in until you can see pixellation, and use the eraser to remove the extra bits.
Below is my final image. |
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