Saturday Special 1-23-10: Using Extraction to Highlight a Color
Hi everyone this is Liz, I have taken over this challenge for Jen so here is her tutorial:
This week, our topic is using an extraction to highlight a portion of a photo using color. You start out with a photo that has a particular part that you want to highlight. I wanted to highlight Zach’s blankie in this photo…
My lesson is done using PSE6.
First, I brought my photo onto my canvas and then made a copy of it and left the copy directly on top of the original. Then, I got to work on my extraction.
There are several ways to extract. You can try Amanda’s method from her Jan 2 Saturday Special using the eraser tool or you can try what I do using the Quick Selection tool.
First, I select the Quick Selection tool. It looks like a magic wand pointing at a “dancing ants” rectangle. If you hover your mouse over your tools, their names pop up and you can find the Quick Selection tool that way too. Once you’ve selected it, roughly outline the part of the photo you are trying to extract. Dancing ants will start to make an outline on the photo. It won’t be perfect. Now, to refine your ants, in the upper left hand corner of your screen there are three little mini quick selection wands…one with a “+” and one with a “-” and one with nothing. If the dancing ants are missing a part of the photo you want to extract, choose the wand with the “+” and go back to that area and run the wand just inside the portion you want to add to your selection. So, if I want to include someone’s arm that was missed in the initial selection, I would run my wand ON the arm, not the outside of it, to add it to my selection. And the opposite goes for the “-” wand. If there are parts that it did select that you want removed from the selection, use the “-” wand to take them out. In both cases, the “ants” line will move as you go to show you the new selection line.
Once your selection looks good and you want to cut the rest of the photo away, choose Layer/New/ Layer via Cut in your menus and the photo will now be in two pieces, the part you extracted and the rest. Delete the rest of the photo.
Now, we’ll work on the other copy of the photo that is still whole and layered behind your extraction. We need it to be B&W…so make that layer active and choose Enhance/Convert to B&W from the menus. Now, your extraction pops on the photo because it is in color! Merge those two layers.
You can edit both photos as you usually do by playing with their shadows and sharpness and brightness and saturation until they both look good.
Here’s mine…
And here’s more fab inspiration from our CT:
From Andrea:
From Emilee:
From Jan:
Tip: You can use this same technique to make a part of a photo stand out in a different way. Maybe there’s a distracting backgroud… Do the same steps above except instead of making the photo behind B&W, blur it by choosing Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur from your menus and playing with the radius number…10 is a good place to start. Now your extraction stands out because it is in focus and the distracting background is blurred, but they are both either color or B&W so there is less contrast. With this method you will want to choose the Refine Edge option at the top of the screen after you’ve done your Quick Selection and play with the Feather number. This will make the edge of your extracted photo blend well with the blurred background photo.
Ok–you’re turn, let’s see what you can do!
You don’t have to use SM products but we love it when you do! To get your challenge point, please post your LO to the Saturday Special gallery and post it here too in this thread. You have until Jan 31st to complete this challenge. You’ll receive one point towards your January total. If you use a New Release for an extra point, PLEASE NOTE IT IN BOTH YOUR CREDITS IN THE GALLERY AND YOUR POST TO THE THREAD in order to receive your extra point. At the end of the month, I will pick a random winner, who will receive a bonus point on February’s total. Now go out there and be extracting maniacs!
