EXtracting from a photograph problem

**AndyD** · 03 July 2007, 02:28 PM

HI All,
I tried to extract some "pretty people" from a photograph to insert onto a coloured background, but I seem to have run into problems with the extraction. I selected the extracted section and the background image but something went wrong. The extracted section seems to deselected - well it is now transparent and not a colour as in Egg's tutorial - and I don't seem to be able to transfer the "people" to my new background. I think I have got my layers messed up or something... I am uploading the file in case anyone has time to tell me where I went wrong. When I try to combine shapes>intersect shapes, all I see is the outline of the traced/drawn people.

Having difficulty posting file.... will try again...

Cheers
Andy

**AndyD** · 03 July 2007, 02:38 PM

It's impossible, just can't get it to upload..... need to the whole extraction again I think.... it had taken me an age to do the extraction/outlining...aaaahhhhh

My connection seems to be running slow as it's impossible to upload this file...

Andy

**Mickie** · 03 July 2007, 11:02 PM

Andy,

Have you tried changing to wireframe using the view quality slider to see if you can select the outline then shift/select the bitmap. If your outline has no fill or line color, it will only show in the wireframe.

Mickie

**raynerj1** · 03 July 2007, 11:36 PM

Hi Andy,

To slice and dice you need to select both the "cookie cutter" and the cookie Dough. Select the cookie cutter then shift and select the cookie dough.

**AndyD** · 04 July 2007, 09:21 AM

The file size seems to be about 12MB so I guess this might be the reason why I can't upload.... I'll try the suggestions guys.
If I highlight the drawing line and the background image, the background image disappears and the line drawn around my image has it's black nodes visible around the drawn line. I think I shall just start again from scratch..... very disappointing, and not knowing what I have done wrong, I just hope I don't do it again. I've extracted from images before using Egg's tutorial... with success. Here goes...
Just tried to upload again but I am told it has failed...

Andy

**stlewis** · 04 July 2007, 09:45 AM

Andy

Why not upload an example with a small jpg.

The usual technique is put the jpg in one layer and lock. Create a new layer and draw the outline there. Unlock both layers, select the jpg and the outline and then (I prefer...) Control+4 to create the inner shape and the outer remnants.

**AndyD** · 04 July 2007, 09:57 AM

Here it is with a smaller image... hopefully.
I deleted the other larger photo, and imported a reduced size photo and have tried to place it beneath the drawn outline. I still couldn't get the 2 layers to combine shapes>intersect shapes though... What I'd like to do is to extract the beautiful people (of which I am not..... lol) and superimpose and feather onto a plain/flat coloured bg.

Cheers
Andy

**molucca** · 04 July 2007, 10:09 AM

You have an open path. Close the path and you will get a filled object.

Rich

**handrawn** · 04 July 2007, 10:22 AM

in the status bar you should see the description change from line to shape as you close the line.

the intersection works with a line of course and what you get is what lies behind the line as opposed to the shape...

**Albacore** · 04 July 2007, 10:38 AM

As Rich pointed out you had open path at left girls foot. I closed path and did "Ctrl+4" and remove the sea and then when that is done go around round taking the rest of the background out ie between the middle two at the girls waist using the same method. What I would suggest that you do is that you use the editor tool and get a much more accurate line around the object so that when you come slice the shape you see all of the object and feathering doesn't lose finger definition and hair shape. Please also watch the highlights in this photo as you have strong light coming from the right and if you do plain background the look of the illustration can look strange.