130 Setting up a Home Studio
You don’t have to have a pure white background to create a clip-
ping path. But more often than not, you’ll fi nd clipping paths are used
with isolated images, and they are a good place to start if you are
unfamiliar with paths.
A word of warning: a poorly executed clipping path is worse than
no clipping path at all. So, if you are going to create one, do it properly
and check that it works. There are software packages that can speed
up the process, such as Corel Knockout, but I am assuming you just
have a no-frills copy of Photoshop at your disposal.
It might seem out of place to discuss clipping paths in a chapter on
studio setups. I could have mentioned them in detail in Chapter 4, for
example. But I think the discussion fi ts here because clipping paths
are so often associated with isolated images, and those images are
often shot in a studio.THE QUICK-AND-DIRTY VERSUS THE OFFICIALLY
APPROVED METHOD
I don’t know about you, but I’m all for shortcuts if they work. I spend
enough time in front of computers as it is, so I want to use the fastest
methods available to achieve a good result. With clipping paths, the
magic is in the selection process. The quick-and-dirty method is to use
the magic wand tool (Figure 7.11) to select the unwanted background,FIGURE 7.11 The Photoshop palette
gives access to key tools used for creating
selections. Here I have highlighted the magic
wand and the pen tools.