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Creating a Perfect Cutout without a Selection in sight with Photoshop CS-4

The Video runs for 30 minutes

In this video we start the process with our image below, which was created in Photomatix software as a High Dynamic Range image. We cover this technique in another of our CS4 downloadable tutorials HERE. It is not an essential requirement to start this way of course and a raw file or a high resolution Jpg will also do the job.

We needed to remove the sky and background here because the HDR process did not handle that part as well as would have liked, but there are some complex shapes involved and we also wanted to ensure this image was good enough for a very large print. You can see what we mean below.

We have used a technique here that we have used for years that involves no selections at all. Automatic tools are all very well, but in our view the best results come when we apply some tender loving care to the cutouts we make. We do have many of our images printed to 24 inches on the long side and when you get an image that size and bigger, the manipulation that got you to that stage has to be perfect or it will be seen. However, we can't leave the image like this so we added a new sky too.

Our Finished Image

Derivatives

Download our readme file HERE