How Can I do This?

[caryc]

Hello Guys,

I'm a custom gun grip maker. With each set of grips that I make I have to photograph them for my website. I'm looking to speed up this process by just photographing the gun on a colored or white background then taking the gun only out of that picture and dropping it into another picture with a background.

This would save me from setting up the backgrounds every time I have to shoot a new set of grips. I have tried this with some freeware but was able to only get an image of the gun that had some fuzzy edges, not really a clear image. I don't mind paying $99 for Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 if it will do what I want.

Below is an example pic that I want to take the gun out of and paste onto a pre shot background. My question is....will Photoshop do this? Sorry I couldn't figure how to make the pic appear, only the link.

[steve.ledger]

If you are ready and willing to buy PS Elements, I would recommend taking a close look at Xara Xtreme 5 for $10 less because Xtreme will allow you to knock out an object from the background much more precisely and neatly than almost any other software I know of.

Please review these two video demos by way of example:
http://www.talkgraphics.com/showpost...59&postcount=4

[HayTay]

I'm not sure about Photoshop Elements, but, as Steve (sledger) says, "I would recommend taking a close look at Xara Xtreme 5 for $10 less because Xtreme will allow you to knock out an object from the background much more precisely and neatly than almost any other software I know of." I, heartily, second that suggestion. It takes a bit of practice to master, but once you've got the skill it's hard to beat, time and precision wise. Why not try the Xara Xtreme 5 or Xara Xtreme Pro 5 trial. It's easy to get hooked in 30 days (or less . Plus there are lots of tutorials and other resources to get you started on your way.

And, a big welcome to TalkGraphics, Cary!

Just my 2¢,
Harry

PS - I can post the XAR file so you can see what I did to create the image below. If you're willing to give Xara Xtreme a try, that is. But, since it's your revolver photo I'll need your permission.

.

[steve.ledger]

....and you never know, with further help and motivation, you could end up drawing the whole thing using Xtreme.
Check out the work of newcomers to Xtreme and TG members Black Panther & Lupen

[caryc]

I'm not sure about Photoshop Elements, but, as Steve (sledger) says, "I would recommend taking a close look at Xara Xtreme 5 for $10 less because Xtreme will allow you to knock out an object from the background much more precisely and neatly than almost any other software I know of." I, heartily, second that suggestion. It takes a bit of practice to master, but once you've got the skill it's hard to beat it, time and precision wise. Why not try the Xara Xtreme 5 or Xara Xtreme Pro 5 trial. It's easy to get hooked in 30 days (or less . Plus there are lots of tutorials and other resources to get you started on your way.

And, a big welcome to TalkGraphics, Cary!

Just my 2¢,
Harry

PS - I can post the XAR file so you can see what I did to create the image below. If you're willing to give Xara Xtreme a try, that is. But, since it's your pistol picture I'll need your permission.

.

Thanks so much for the input. The pic you did looks great. But before I go any farther I'd like to know how long it took you to do it. That is not counting time to do the background just the time to isolate the gun.

I don't know if you looked at my website but for each set of grips for sale I take a least 6 pictures. So if it takes a while to do one, it wouldn't really be any advantage for me since I can set up the backgrounds in about 10 minutes. I just don't like setting up the table and dragging in the background stuff.

I was really hoping for something that would let me take a pic of the gun on a solid color then just remove that color and make it transparent. Using an outlining mask and cutting out 6 pictures would just take too long so it would actually take me more time.

Most of the time I do maybe three pairs of grips at the same time. So that's 18 pictures I would have to do.

[handrawn]

so the quick way is 'magic eraser' - set contiguous - you may need to tweak the settings at first, and the sharper the contrast between the object and the background the better

notice its still a bit rough in places - tweaking the tolerance setting may help

however it is only half a dozen clicks - less than 10 seconds work

[caryc]

Thanks Steve but I was able to get about the same results using freeware. It's just too rough around the edges.

There probably is something that will do what I want but I imagine it is enormously expensive.

[HayTay]

Not a problem Cary.

It took me 6-7 minutes to isolate the revolver from the background. But, the cool thing is, once you get the basic vector shape/mask it takes even less time to tweak them, change fills, etc. as shown below. The highlights aren't right due to different lighting of the photos but I think you get the idea. This swap only took me a couple of minutes to whip up.

Cheers,
Harry

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[jvila]

Caryc,
Hello and welcome to TG, I don't use photoshop and I think it should be great for many things, but I really know that any software doesn't have a site like www.xaraxone.com like xara has, and no other software users receive faster answers and help like you can get at TG.
Please if you have 5 minutes go to xaraxone and look at http://www.xaraxone.com/html/workbook_index.html and think if you can get the same info on any other software.
About the time to take out the background, take a look at http://www.xaraxone.com/webxealot/workbook36/page_4.htm
That is a tutorial that removes a very more complex bakground than yours.
Best regards and welcome to TG.

[handrawn]

there are some filters around - but precision takes time whichever way you go about it

you might get better results with a background that was pure color and unrelated to the object [eg red]

a very quick go with a filter in xtreme [mehdi genuine eraser]

still some haze to get rid of - and its desaturated... but again about one minutes work