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A little bit of help with background replacement...(Please.)
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May 7, 2019 13:01:46   #
bleirer
 
Linda From Maine wrote:
Wow! I shouldn't be surprised, given there are commands related to faces and such, but this is pretty impressive. Soon, we'll only have to think the result

Except Photoshop thinks the bed is part of the cat, and we know better.

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May 7, 2019 13:11:56   #
Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington
 
bleirer wrote:
Except Photoshop thinks the bed is part of the cat, and we know better.
Ah, good point. I hadn't thought the OP wanted to extract simply the cat, though, until I read from others. Hopefully, he'll return soon with further info or with acknowledgement that someone has struck the right cord in the thread.

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May 8, 2019 07:15:40   #
buddah17 Loc: The Bahamas
 
10-4
Coming up after tending to our pack of feral cat rescues..
And while l was born in The Bahamas, l live in Miami Fla.
Linda From Maine wrote:
Ah, good point. I hadn't thought the OP wanted to extract simply the cat, though, until I read from others. Hopefully, he'll return soon with further info or with acknowledgement that someone has struck the right cord in the thread.

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May 8, 2019 08:04:28   #
buddah17 Loc: The Bahamas
 
OK... Thanks to all who took the time to send a reply, it's reassuring that members within the club take time to help one another.
First of all..... I wanted to change the background, because it showed the wall texture and the floorboard. I did NOT want to take the cradle out, to me it was a major "part" of the image.
What I had done was to zoom in to the image, and cover the background with black from the painters brush. However, it left "ragged" edges between the end of the cradle and the wall/floor; and I have noticed in the past that when I made canvas prints from such images, there seemed to be a "variation" in the background colors and therefore it was not a even colored background.
Howard5252 wrote:
The answers will be coming in shortly and the real answer is going to depend upon how accurately you want the selection of the cat and its "Cradle" to be. Some selection programs do a better job than others and you may wind up having to buy one. What program do you have now, I'll assume it's about the one you were watching YouTube videos of.

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May 8, 2019 08:06:26   #
buddah17 Loc: The Bahamas
 
Actually I just wanted a "flat" black background with no variations.
Linda From Maine wrote:
Did you use a selection tool in order to make the background all black? If yes, you've already accomplished the difficult - or at least the tedious - part.

Once you have the cat and bed selected, just copy/paste this selection onto the image you want as new background. That's the simplest way I can think of

In PS Elements that puts the cat/bed on a new layer and I believe is similar for PS. It could be helpful also if you'd post the image you'd like to use as background or explain further what you'd like your end result to be. There may be re-sizing, perspective changes or layer blend modes to adjust for a more refined result.
Did you use a selection tool in order to make the ... (show quote)

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May 8, 2019 08:08:39   #
buddah17 Loc: The Bahamas
 
Thanks for concise reply...
bleirer wrote:
If you have Photoshop, the sort of easy way is to use the erase background tool. It is on the left, right click the eraser tool to see the background eraser option. It is tedious and you have to save often and save versions, but you can set the sensitivity of the tool to tell it how much contrast to consider background. If it erases too much change the slider to the left to distinguish more finely. Click contiguous and sample once for the most control. Just click with the cross on the tool outside the subject, but the circle in the subject. It makes what you erase transparent so whatever layer is below is revealed. Control-z to undo mistakes. You can put another pic in the layer below or add a full layer to pick a color. There are other settings in the tool to make it more sensitive.

A quicker way but more technical and difficult is the refine edge tool. You have to use the selection tool throughly outline the area, choose select and mask from the menu, then pick the refine edge brush to paint the edge. This is much more complex. You can smooth, feather, control contrast, etc. If you choose 'output to selection' you can invert the selection under the selection menu and simply hit the delete button to erase it. Even better but even more complicated is choose 'output to new layer with layer mask.' Here if you made an error you can use a white or black paintbrush to reveal more or hide more.

If you are trying to separate the cat from the bed, you will have difficulty in every method where the cat fur and bed fur are so similar. The program will have trouble sensing the difference. You can use the regular eraser tool and zoom in and laboriously erase dot by dot the unwanted part. Or if you used the mask, zoom in with white or black brush.
If you have Photoshop, the sort of easy way is to ... (show quote)

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May 8, 2019 08:10:13   #
buddah17 Loc: The Bahamas
 
Thanks..
This is something I might try, (but including the cradle in the image..)
SonyA580 wrote:
"remove/change the background."

By "background" I'm assuming you meant the basket too. Here is the cat isolated from everything else. No Layers or Masks were used. I VERY CAREFULLY outlined the cat with the Photoshop Lasso tool, clicked on "Inverse" and used a large brush with Black selected to paint out the basket (you could use any color you want). Some small areas needed the Patch tool to reconstruct edges of the fur where it blended with the fur on the basket. It took about 15-20 minutes to do. Hope this is what you wanted.
"remove/change the background." br br ... (show quote)

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May 8, 2019 08:11:32   #
buddah17 Loc: The Bahamas
 
Thanks.. I tried this, but when I tried to paint in the background, color went "on" the cat and cradle as well..??
DWU2 wrote:
It doesn't always work, but I tried a simple approach in PS CC: Select - Subject. I subsequently replaced the black background with white.

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May 8, 2019 08:15:10   #
edwdickinson Loc: Ardmore PA
 
Cat's In The Cradle is by Harry Chapin.

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May 8, 2019 08:15:27   #
buddah17 Loc: The Bahamas
 
Thanks..... Let me just say that at my "age and stage" in life and not growing up with computers, my ability to follow a lot of these instructions remain in the vein of "Dumb and Dumber!!" But thanks. I always keep all of the answers and whenever I have free time, "play" with what I THINK the instructions are telling me!!

bleirer wrote:
That is a nice job and nice of you to take the time. It made me think that the magic wand selection tool might also help with the initial selection since you can dial in the sensitivity and use +/- to get even closer.

Just to suggest a further refinement that might reveal more of the fine hair of the cat against the background. After you use the lasso tool, click select and mask, choose the refine edge brush, and just carefully paint the edge of the fur. Photoshop will automatically try to distinguish the hair from the background. If you output to a mask you can still use black or white brush to conceal or reveal problem areas. Or if you are not ready to tackle a mask you can output back to the selection. If it has taken too much cat you can go back to select and mask and choose the regular selection brush and add to or subtract from the selection until it is how you like it.
That is a nice job and nice of you to take the tim... (show quote)

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May 8, 2019 08:15:54   #
buddah17 Loc: The Bahamas
 
Linda From Maine wrote:
Wow! I shouldn't be surprised, given there are commands related to faces and such, but this is pretty impressive. Soon, we'll only have to think the result


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May 8, 2019 08:16:45   #
buddah17 Loc: The Bahamas
 
But it is a part of my intended image...
bleirer wrote:
Except Photoshop thinks the bed is part of the cat, and we know better.

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May 8, 2019 08:34:03   #
AlMac Loc: Newcastle Upon Tyne - UK
 
As suggested above, use the magic wand tool (under the quick selection tool) and make sure contiguous is pressed.
Once you have your selection, click select and mask. (fig 1)

Click on Invert to select the cat rather than the background.
Use the content aware brush to improve your seletion.
Set output to New Layer with Layer Mask. (fig 2)

You now have your selection on its own layer. I created a white layer below it bet I find it best to drag the seletion into the new background (fig 3)

As you have the layer mask on your selection you can play with it all you like by painting black or white on the mask.


While I was trying this I see you have posted that you want the background black.
Press D to turn you forground/background to default black and white. Where I put the white layer, just fill with the foreground colour.


Alan.


(Download)


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(Download)

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May 8, 2019 09:20:42   #
bleirer
 
A super simple thing you could try would be to use the vignetting slider, most programs have one, Lightroom's is way down on the right side. You can adjust the gradient. It would show some of your background but might do what you want.

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May 8, 2019 11:52:59   #
buddah17 Loc: The Bahamas
 
Thanks..
I did try that, (I think the effect was actually done on the image,) but it was uneven and darken some areas where I didn't want it to be darken...
bleirer wrote:
A super simple thing you could try would be to use the vignetting slider, most programs have one, Lightroom's is way down on the right side. You can adjust the gradient. It would show some of your background but might do what you want.

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