Submited: byNicholas Hall 2008-07-20 17:53:11 This Article has been viewed 20900 times.

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When you're isolating or cutting out objects from an image, the method of extraction you should use will depend on the image with which your working. Clipping paths work best for objects with hard edges. This will be the method i will be teaching you today with this tutorial.

Using the Clipping Path Method.
As i mentioned earlier this method is effective for hard-edged objects .

First you will need an image to isolate. if you would like to practice with the image i use in this tutorial you can download it here Image

Next select the Pen Tool (P) and choose the Paths button in the options bar. Like the image below.


Selecting the Paths option for the Pen Tool.

Create a path that tightly follows the outline of your object as shown below. If you need to zoom in and use the Direct Selection Tool (A) to adjust the handelbars for the path.



Select your image layer from the Layers palette and select Layer > Vector Mask > Current Path. A vector mask, based on the path we just drew, will be created for the layer, as shown below, notice my image has a slight color halo.



With the Direct Selection Tool (A) I'm going to adjust the path of the vector mask to get rid of the halo. We can see what my final extraction looks like below

I have added a blue background to the image to show you the final extracted image.




Now you can use this method of isolating images within your next designs.

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