Removing background from images

[AlexRoss]

Hi,

I am designing a catalog however the photos have a background, for
example the pictures are of shoes but i can see the table the shoe is sitting on and the background behind the shoe, is there a way to cut the shoes out in Photoshop so the background is removed?

Thanks

[angierae]

The easiest way I find to do this, although time consuming, is to use the eraser. Zoom in on your photo a lot, I usually do about 200% - 400% zoom, so that it's detailed, then simply erase the background. Depending on the composition it might be easier to crop as close to the subject as you can, just means less erasing in the end ;)

[coffee]

I'm not a PS pro, but have done this. This is how I did it. Select the image with the magic wand tool or other selecting tool, then copy selection. Create new file with no background then paste what you copied into that.

I believe you can also select the image to keep, then "edit/inverse" so that everything is selected but the image, then "select/clear". That should clear everything but the image.

[jerryph]

When doing product shots, instead of going through all the hassle of removing the background, it should be tons easier to place the products into an "appropriate" setting. Then you don't have to waste time removing it, re-pasting it into other backgrounds and so on.

Shoes are small objects and a small backdrop with or without some shapely feet in the pic is a lot easier and less time consuming to do in the first place. ;)

It's not shoes, but a sample idea. I wanted to do a product shot of a Nikon speedlight:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2311/2089596822_1b5ed1298c.jpg (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2311/2089596822_1b5ed1298c_b.jpg)

The backdrop is a ping pong table, but there was nothing from stopping me and making a mini 2 X 2 foot studio complete with lighting and make an improved version.