One of the most commonly used and popular post-processing techniques in commercial and advertising photography is image clipping in Adobe Photoshop.
As an advertising photographer, I often have to take and process pictures for catalogs, online stores, as well as for subsequent work on design and photo editing in graphic editors.
Clipping is the separation of an object from the background, if necessary, followed by replacing the background with a transparent, uniform white or color. Moreover, in some cases, the falling shadow, reflection or glare from the object is left or finished (at the request of the customer).
Such images make it possible to concentrate the client's attention on the represented object as much as possible, without distracting the background details.
The most popular is the clipping of photographs with the subject placed on a 100% white background (R: 255, G: 255, B: 255).
Initially, shooting an object against a completely white background without any information in pixels around the entire perimeter is almost impossible. If you highlight the background as much as possible, this will be reflected in the form of contour lighting on the subject. If you underestimate, information in pixels will immediately appear, and the white value will already deviate from (R: 255, G: 255, B: 255).
I shoot on the Nikon D800. This is a full-frame camera with a high resolution of 36.3 megapixels and an image size of 7360x4912 pixels, which allows you to get photos with excellent detail, clarity and depth. For subject photography, I mainly use Nikon 105mm f / 2.8G AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor and Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-120mm F / 4G ED VR lenses.
By the way, today, Nikon offers a new model D810. She has similar characteristics. What is the difference? In particular, a matrix without an anti-fly filter is installed here. It gives higher detail with the same dynamic range and good color reproduction. Great solution for subject shooting!
Due to the wide dynamic range, when shooting in RAW, information about the color and details in the overexposed areas is saved, even if they look completely white on the camera screen and in JPG format. This stock in RAW allows you to muffle glare if necessary, develop contours and restore the necessary details on the object to be shot in a RAW envelope.
On the left is a frame shot in JPG format with overexposed areas in the image. On the right is the same RAW frame after lowering the exposure values ??and restoring details in the overexposed areas in Adobe Lightroom.
But after restoring the details on the object, you will also display information on the background, and post-processing with image clipping in Adobe Photoshop, as a rule, will be inevitable.
Therefore, shooting under clipping is usually carried out on a white background highlighted in such a way that the object being shot looks at it as contrasted as possible, with full preservation of borders and outlines. More often than not, the white background in the photo turns out to be light gray.
You can crop photos in Adobe Photoshop in various ways. To do this, we need to create a clipping mask on the layer with the object, which will hide the unnecessary background.
Let's look at a few basic tricks for clipping various images.
Create a clipping mask based on the selected area
Basic tools for creating a selection
The Rectangular Marquee Tool, the Elliptical Marquee Tool, the Single Row Marquee Tool, the Single Column Marquee Tool are all designed to make selections based on simple geometric shapes.
On the top panel, you can configure the basic parameters of their work.
Modes of interaction with other selections: New selection, Add to selection, Subtract from selection, Intersect with selection.
If your object includes clear geometric shapes, you can use one of these tools to highlight it.
Plus selection tools based on simple geometric shapes:
- convenient selection of objects with a clear oval or rectangular shape.
Minus:
- do not allow to select objects of complex shape.
Lasso Tool (Lasso), Polygonal Lasso Tool (Polygonal Lasso), Magnetic Lasso Tool (Magnetic Lasso) - tools that allow you to manually draw selected areas.
Lasso Tool (Lasso) allows you to draw an arbitrary selection line in the same way as if you were drawing its outline with a pen or pencil on paper. You just need to click the tool, putting the starting point on the image, and then start to draw a line while holding down the mouse button. To close the outline of the selection area, you must bring the line back to the starting point or press the Enter key.
Plus Lasso Tool:
- allows you to create a selected area of ??complex arbitrary shape.
Minus:
- difficult to use in the absence of the practice of drawing lines and paths on a computer by hand.
The Poligonal Lasso Tool (Polygonal Lasso) allows you to draw an arbitrary selection line, consisting of straight lines. You need to click with the tool, putting the starting point on the image, after which a straight line will stretch from it. By clicking with the mouse, you will set new reference points, “fixing” line segments. To close the outline of the selection area, you must bring the line back to the starting point or press the Enter key.
Pros of the Poligonal Lasso Tool:
- allows you to create a selected area of ??complex arbitrary shape; simpler and more accurate in use than the Lasso Tool, does not require the practice of drawing lines and paths on a computer by hand.
Minus:
- if necessary, creating smooth lines requires drawing a contour with a large number of control points.
The Magnetic Lasso Tool is a tool that automatically searches for edges when you move the cursor around an object and sticks to them like a magnet, creating a selection. Magnetic Lasso works by calculating pixel differences in colors and brightness levels between the selected object and the background.
On the top panel, you can configure the main parameters of its operation:
- Width - The size of the area in which Photoshop searches for the edges of the object. Contrast — The difference in the value of color or brightness between the subject and the background to treat a region as an edge.
- Frequency - a parameter that determines how often anchor points will be added when creating a selection outline.
Plus Magnetic Lasso Tool:
- quick selection of objects of complex shape with contrasting edges.
Minus:
- if the image and the background have similar pixels at the borders, undesirable parts of the image may get into the selected area.
Magic Wand Tool (Magic Wand) and Quick Selection Tool (Quick selection) - tools that work on the principle of selecting pixels that are similar in color.
Magic Wand Tool (Magic Wand) - a tool for highlighting a monochrome background.
On the top panel, you can configure the basic parameters of the Magic Wand:
- Tolerance - a parameter that is responsible for the degree of proximity in color of the selected pixels. The lower its value, the fewer colors will fall into the selection range. The greater its value, the more pixels that differ in color will be highlighted.
- Contiguous. If you check this option, only pixels that are similar in color and next to each other will be highlighted. When the checkmark is off, they will be highlighted throughout the image area.
Using the Magic Wand Tool, in one click I selected a homogeneous background, which is behind the package with eyeshadows. But in order to select the area at the bottom of the package, where there is a shadow falling from the object and the pixels are quite different in color, I will have to fine-tune the tolerance mode (Tolerance), as well as repeatedly click on different color areas in the Add to selection mode (Add to selection) that will take a lot of time. Also, when selecting an area with a shadow, there is a high probability that the black pixels of the plastic packaging image, similar in color to the falling shadow, will start to fall into the selected area.
Pros of Magic Wand Tool:
- fast selection of pixels similar in color;
- convenient for highlighting a uniform background.
Minuses:
- selection of areas with different color pixels and a visible texture takes a lot of time;
- if the image and background have similar pixels at the borders, extra pixels may get into the selected area.
The Quick Selection Tool ( like the Magic Wand) works on the principle of selecting pixels that are similar in color, has the shape of a brush and allows you to select objects of complex shape with contrasting edges. As you move the brush, Adobe Photoshop automatically detects the edges of the object and expands the selected area.
The exposure range of this tool is governed by the size of the brush.
Plus Quick Selection Tool:
- quick selection of objects of complex shape with contrasting edges.
Minus:
- if the image and the background have similar pixels at the borders, undesirable pixels may get into the selected area.
After creating the selected area around the object using one or more of the above tools, it is advisable to apply the feathering of the selected area (Feather) so that the edges of the clipped object do not look too sharp against the new background. To do this, I use the Select - Modify - Feather command or the keyboard shortcut Shift + F6. The feather radius (Feather Radius) I usually set to 2 pixels.
If the image has uneven edges (for example, hair or fur) and the selection you created is not so accurate, you can try adjusting its parameters using the Select - Refine Edge command. This requires that the area you select cover the object, not the background. If you originally had a background selected, you must invert the selected area by executing the Select - Inverse command or by pressing the keyboard shortcut Shift + Ctrl + I.
In the
Refine Edge window, you can adjust the parameters of the selected area that are most suitable for your image.
The View Mode setting allows you to select the preview type of the selected area.
Try moving the sliders in the Radius, Smooth, Feather, Contrast, Shift Edge, and Decontaminate Colors settings, choosing the values ??for the best result.
Image with the area originally selected using the Magic Wand tool without adjusting the parameters in the Refine Edge window.
Image with customized settings in the Refine Edge window
Now, from the selected area, create a mask for our layer, with it we will hide the background around the object.
You can simply remove the unwanted background by clicking the Delete button, but then we will not be able to make changes and re-edit the image outline if necessary. Having created a mask from the selected area, which will only hide from visibility, but will not delete the part of the image that we do not need, we will be able to edit it at any time.
To do this, I will unlock the Background layer in the Layers palette by double-clicking the lock icon with the left mouse button.
After that, click on the Add layer mask button at the bottom of the Layers palette.
The mask will leave visible on the layer that part of the image that the selected area covers, and everything outside it will become invisible.
In my photo, the selected area covers the background, but I need to leave the object visible, and just hide the background. To do this, when I click on the
Add layer mask button in the Layers palette, I simultaneously press the Alt key on the keyboard. This command will invert the mask.
You can achieve the same result in one more way: initially, invert the selected area by executing the Select - Inverse command or pressing the key combination Shift + Ctrl + I on the keyboard. Now our selection does not cover the background, but the object, and we can just click on the
Add layer mask button in the Layers palette, without simultaneously pressing the Alt key.
Now, under our mask layer, create a new layer by clicking the
Create a new layer button in the Layers palette and simultaneously holding down the Ctrl button on the keyboard. Holding down the Ctrl button will create a new layer under our working layer with the mask. If you do not press Ctrl, a new layer will be created on top of the working layer, and you will have to manually drag it down on the palette.
Fill the new layer with white using the Fill tool.
Clipping an object with a room on a white background is complete!
We examined the way to create clipping masks based on selected areas and basic tools for working with them.
When creating and adjusting the selected area very often several tools are used in turn at once: you can always find the most comfortable and convenient for you to work!
In the next article, I will talk about other ways to get clipping masks: based on vector paths, as well as using a Wacom graphics tablet.
