››DOWN AND DIRTY TRICKS› ›kelbyone.com021Step One: Start by opening the image of the main subject
that you want to use, or if you’re a KelbyOne member, you can
download the files with which we’re working. This subject is on
a white background, which will make her a bit easier to extract.
[KelbyOne members may download the files used in this tuto-
rial at http://kelbyone.com/magazine. All files are for personal
use only.]
Step Two: We don’t need the volleyball in this image, so grab
the Lasso tool (L) in the Toolbox and draw a loose selection
around the ball. Press D then X to set your Foreground color
to white. Then, press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill
that selected area with white. Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D)
to deselect.
Step Three: Because our subject is on a solid white back-
ground, let’s use my trusty channel method to extract her. Open
the Channels panel (Window>Channels) and click on the Green
channel, as this one is where the subject is darkest. Right-click on
the channel, choose Duplicate Channel from the pop-up menu,
and click OK.
Step Four: With the duplicate chan-
nel active, click the little box to the
left of its thumbnail in the Channels
panel to make it visible. Click the
Eye icon next to the original Green
channel to hide it. Press Shift-Delete
(PC: Shift-Backspace) to open the Fill
dialog. Choose Black from the Con-
tents drop-down menu and change
the Mode to Overlay. Click OK. This
will make the gray areas darker while
leaving the background white. Do
this a second time to make them
even darker.
Step FourStep OneStep Two Step Three©Adobe Stock/.shock