Replacing Backgrounds

Topics covered in this Photoshop tutorial:

The Magic Wand tool, Image compositing

Exercise Preview

Exercise Overview

In this exercise, you will combine two separate photos. The first image features a man against a boring background. To make the composition more interesting, you’ll cut him out (often called “silhouetting”) and place him in front of the second image.

Using the Magic Wand Tool

1. Go to File > Open.

2. From the Photoshop Class folder, open the files baseball.jpg and security.tif.

3. Make sure security.tif is the active document.
4. Choose View > Fit on Screen.

5. From the Tools panel, choose the Magic Wand tool . If you don’t see it, click and hold on the Object Selection tool and then choose it.

   NOTE: The Magic Wand is a selection tool that recognizes color variations. When you click on an area of the image with the Magic Wand, all adjacent areas of similar color will be selected.

6. In the Options bar, set the Tolerance to 20. This makes the Magic Wand select fewer colors, therefore less of the image will be selected. Lower numbers equals fewer colors. Higher numbers equals more colors.

7. Click on part of the green background. You’ll find that a large part of it becomes selected but that there are many parts of the background that are not yet selected.

8. To add to the selection, hold Shift and click on another section of the green background. The original selection remains and a new selection is added to it.

   NOTE: To subtract from the selection you hold Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows).

9. Continue holding Shift clicking on the green background until all of it is selected. Don’t forget the areas between the railings!

   NOTE: If part of the man or the railings become selected, then use Cmd–Z (Mac) or Ctrl–Z (Windows) to undo your most recent step. Then try clicking on a different section of the background with the Magic Wand tool . You can also change the Tolerance to a lower number to make the Magic Wand pickier.

10. Choose Select > Inverse. Instead of having the background selected, you now have everything except the background selected.

11. In the Options bar, click the Select and Mask button.
12. In the Properties panel on the right, click on the thumbnail next to View and double–click On Black.
13. Set Opacity to 100%.
14. In the Edge Detection section, make sure Radius is set to 0 px.

15. In the Global Refinements section, set the following:

    Smooth:	5
    Shift Edge:	If you have too much green all around, try dragging this slider left (negative numbers contract the selection area, pulling it in).

    Keep in mind that this image is going onto another green background, so it does not have to be 100% perfect.

16. At the bottom right, click OK.

17. Use Cmd–C (Mac) or Ctrl–C (Windows) to copy the selected area.

18. Go into the Window menu and choose baseball.jpg to make it the active document.
19. Use Cmd–V (Mac) or Ctrl–V (Windows) to paste the copied image onto this image.
20. Choose View > Fit on Screen.

21. Go to the Layers panel (Window > Layers).

    Notice that the content that you’ve pasted has been automatically placed onto a new layer named Layer 1.

22. Double–click directly on the name Layer 1 and rename it security. Hit Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows) to apply.

23. From the Tools panel, choose the Move tool .

24. Drag the security guard down or up to line up his bottom edge with the bottom of the document. You will see pink Smart guides when it snaps to the bottom. Release the mouse when you see a Smart guide on both the bottom and right sides.

Cleaning Up

1. You may find that tiny bits of the green background show up at some of the guard’s edges. Let’s fix this.

2. From the Tools panel, choose the Eraser tool .

3. In the Options bar, choose a fairly small, hard-edged brush. (Try 8 px.)

4. Use the Eraser to carefully brush over the green bits on the edges of the guard’s sleeves. (It will help to zoom in for this part.)

   Note that the areas of the security layer that you’ve erased become transparent.

5. When you’re satisfied with the results, do a File > Save As.

   • Set Format (Mac) or Save as type (Windows) to Photoshop.
   • Name it yourname-baseball.psd and hit Save.
   • If it asks about Maximize Compatibility, keep it checked and click OK.