I know there are many ways you can mask out a picture, but using my way you can preserve the details on edges (for instance, try to mask a furry animal, and you are in a lot of trouble).

For this method to work (as with others), the subject must be in great contrast with the background (a white background will save you a lot of trouble). So let's use this picture:



First step - Get a mask
Select a channel that has the best contrast! In this case, I choose the green one


as the sky has little green:



Copy the channel, and paste it as a layer (Select All, Ctrl+C, Select the RGB Channel, Move to Layers Window, Ctrl+V).
The Layers window should look like this:



Step 2 - Adjust the mask
Adjust the mask (copied channel) using the Image>Adjust>Levels until the background is white, and the subject is as black as possible, but the edges are not too jaggered. Don't worry if the subject gets holes in it. You can correct that with a brush.



Step 3 - Clean up the mask
Get a black hard brush and correct the black of the subject by covering up the holes. Then switch to white and correct the white background.


Step 4 - Masking
Now that we have the mask done, copy it into a new channel (Select All, Copy, Move to Channels window, New channel, Paste).
Now we can make a selection out of this mask by pressing CTRL+Click on the new channel.
Now, go back to the layers window, select the original layer (with the subject in color), and add a layer mask. (Layer > Layer mask > Hide selection).
And here is the masked picture:


If you get the background and the subject is masked, just invert the layer mask (Ctrl+I)
This is the mask inverted:



Now you can place your subject on another background, or composition:


And some tweaking (Levels, Color Balance):



It may seem like a long operation, but it's pretty easy.. (I did the example in about 30 seconds). It's as easy as 1, 2, 3..... and.. 4

Please drop me a comment if you found this useful, hard to understand, a piece of crap, or just for a 'thanks'

Watch me for more tutorials

Also visit the old journal entries for more tutorials:
- PS Tip #1 - Blurring






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