Taking part of an image "out" of an image????

Hey y'all,
I'm new here. I wonder if anyone knows how to take an object "out of a raster" and bring it in to other software packages "NOT" as a rectangle? Let's say I import a picture of a horse, or even a simple shape .... can I get it out and in to other environments "NOT" as a rectagle surrounding my object with "white space" all around??
I tried the marquee select. I added nodes, and moved them to the outline of the object, then exported to a high resolution jpg. I inserted it in to a map, and it was rectangular, and did not crop "to my marquee boundary". Even when i look at it in Windows Picture viewer, it has maintained its' "rectangular shape. What's up with that? do I need to vectorize it based on the marquee boundary or something? If so ..... how??
Any advisement would be appreciated. Cheers everyone!!

p.s. -- if I've not been clear what it is I'm trying to do .... let me know and I'll add a print screen or two and try to explain myself more effectively.

if its a raster object it will be rectangular - no way round that, no matter how you crop, transparent pixels are still there - raster is recatngular

to decide if vectorising is an option I would need to see the image

Welcome to TalkGraphics Dano

I use Xara Designer Pro and I would create a shape that matches the object I want to remove and use the Intersect Shapes command.

See this tutorial http://www.xaraxone.com/webxealot/workbook36/page_4.htm

Thanks for the response guys,

I made some progress, but not exactly what I'm after!! I hope the attachments uploaded! The "camp tree" attachment is the original picture and "graphic 1" is the result of what I did. I selected "trace bitmap" in Corel Draw, and it did convert the pic to a bunch of vector objects. I was able to copy them "dircetly" and paste them into another software (see Graphic 1 - a print screen of the result).
What I don't get, is no matter how I tried to tweak the settings, it does not look like a photograph any more!! Is there another method I could try?
That's me in the tree by the way!! I climb and fell trees as a side job.

Take care, thanks, and more suggestions welcome please -- cheers

Hi Dano,

Rather than try exporting as a jpg try a file format that supports transparency such as png or gif. A truecolor with alpha png should still look like a photograph and the extra pixels that make the rectangle will be transparent rather than white.

Hello

Here are two different methods of doing it...

One is to use SkyCleaner plug-in from Xero plug-ins (Free) and that gives...

Attachment 79715

[Messing with the settings, you can get even better results.]

Another way to do it is to vectorize the tree (Vector Magic) and use that to mask out the sky...

Attachment 79714

As your image has a bright sky behind it, the part of the image you are after is as much a silhouette as a picture.

Follow Soquili's advice and don't use jpg. Png is best for this...

Peace

James

Very impressive James (and thanks everyone by the way). Can I do this with Corel Draw, Photo paint, Paint Shop Pro, or Adobe Photoshop. I don't have Xero (is it expensive?). Anyway, I believe I need to vectorize the image and remove the unwanted colour filled polygons in the background (ie - the sky areas) to accomplish what I'm after. However, I want to do this without losing the original look of the photo.
Can I do this with one of the packages I mentioned? If not, how much is the Xero, and besides the free plug-ins, are the extensions expensive?

Thanks ... just looked briefly at the tutorial at the URL you sent. It looks like PSP & Photoshop may do this (from what I read). A project just landed on my desk, so I'll have to put this on hold for the moment (but i will get back to it!!). Thanks again!!

You can do it in Photoshop.

The Xero plug-ins set is free. It just has to be downloaded and installed.

Look at http://www.xero-graphics.co.uk/freeware.htm

Take care

James

You can also accomplish the task in Xara. I was recently informed of this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8XgHkZo1J8

By far the easiest way to achieve this is to drop a high-res copy of the "me doing dangerous stuff" photo into Xara Designer, draw around the bits you want to keep, Intersect shapes, and export the resulting image as a transparent PNG. I've yet to see a plugin that can crop out backgrounds more accurately than the human eye. I have Corel Knockout and Photoshop CS1 and I never use them because me and Xara Designer make a better team :thx

The times I've done that Dano I've always cut them out by hand like in Gary's tut. You can be as accurate as you like then. Save as a PNG.