Extracting Selections

Some selections are easy to do; some are like pulling teeth. That's why Photoshop includes an extraction utility. The Extract command (Filter Extract) enables you to isolate a foreground object from its background. Even objects with fuzzy, soft, or hard-to-define edges can now be separated from their backgrounds with very little difficulty.

To extract an object, choose Image Extract to open the Extract dialog box. If it reminds you of Quick Mask, youre right. It's more than just a mask, however.

Extract removes whatever you don't want to keep. You can pre-select the object with the Magic Wand or use the Extract Edge Highlighter tool to draw around the edges of the object. Then you define the object's interior by using the Paint Bucket to fill in the outline. Click the Preview button to preview the extraction. You can refine and preview the extraction as many times as you want. Figure 18.15 shows the Extract dialog box. I've selected the bottle and jar, using the Extract tools to refine the selection. When you are ready to perform the extraction, Photoshop erases the background to transparency, leaving just the extracted object.

Figure 18.15. Many of the Extract dialog box's tools look like the regular Photoshop tools.