JANUARY 2020 PCWorld 129If the sunflower has
white streaks and the
background is white,
using the Fuzzy Select
tool (called the Magic
Wand in Photoshop) will
be harder because it
will select the white
background AND the
white streaks in the
sunflower. If the
background is real busy
with dozens of images
and colors such as a
train station full of
people or a garden full
of plants, you’ll be
clicking that Fuzzy
Select tool 50 times or
more. It’s not as simple
as many of the online
tutorials claim.
Because most
photos have busy
backgrounds and millions of colors, the
trick is to use a combination of tools to cut
the object in the “foreground” out of the
background, then delete or replace the
background. You can start with the Fuzzy
Select tool, then fine-tune the selection
with the Free Select tool (called the
Polygonal Lasso in Photoshop). Hold down
the Shift key to add to your selection.
Or, you can just use the Free Select tool,
outline the object, select Cut, then Paste As
> New Layer. But don’t forget, you must
right-click that layer in the Layers palette, and
choose To New Layer from the pop-up menu
before it becomes an actual layer.
NOTE: If the edges on your new layer are
a little rough, choose Select > Border. When
the Border Selection dialog opens, choose
2 px in the Border Selection By field, then
choose Smooth.Removing backgrounds.