SUMMER 2012
Adviser Update
Page 19A
Cut it out
Extracted images can elevate your design or drag it down
technology
By GARY CLITES
utouts of photos, whether
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used alone or assembled into
a collage of images, are some of
Creating the cutout
1. With the photo open in Photoshop, choose the lasso tool.
2. Hold down the mouse and
drag it around the part of the
photo you want to cut out.
3. Go to Edit > Copy.
4. Go to File and select New.
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3
10. Zoom into the image using
the magnifying glass or by pressing the command and plus keys at
the same time. You can then hand
erase the portions of the image
you want to delete.
4
Using this method, you can
create a simple cutout or join as
many images as you’d like into
one image or collage. The photo
above represents the last step in a
“Where’s Mr. Clites?” assignment.
Note that the three layers - the
face, the hat and the glasses have
been cut out and added to the
background image. This system
is not as graceful as the preferred
method using the Quick Selection
Tool, but with some complicated
images my students have found it
quicker and easier.
Whatever method you use,
cutouts are such an integral part
of modern page design that they
deserve the time and effort necessary to do them really well.
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Using layers to create a collaged image
1. Open the new image you
want to place your extracted
image onto.
2. Go to File and select Place.
3. In the dialog box, find your
saved cutout with the transparent
background. Place it as a second
layer on top of the new image.
4. Adjust the placement and
size of the cutout onto the new
image.
black
5. In the dialog box, name your
new image. You can also change
the size of the image at this point
if you like. Make certain the
“Background Contents” box is set
to “Transparent.”
6. Go to File and select New
7. Go to Edit>Paste. Your cutout should now be onscreen with
a transparent background.
8. Select the Eraser tool from
the Tools menu.
9. In the top menu bar you can
adjust the Size and Hardness of
the eraser. Choose a large size to
erase big sections of the image,
a tiny size for fine cuts around
things like hair. Generally, Hardness refers to how sharp or soft
you want the tool to make cuts.
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The recommended method of
extracting an image in CS5 using
the Quick Selection Tool along
with the Refine Edge menu is
terrific. To learn it, watch Colin
Smith’s excellent tutorial on
Adobe TV at http://tv.adobe.com/
watch/photoshopcafe-tv/new-inphotoshop-cs5-cutout-and-refineedge/. It can, however, be problematic with more complicated
images (note that Smith cheats
a bit in the tutorial, extracting
a model’s image from a perfectly
white background). My students
found it impossible, for example,
to adequately extract the blonde
student above from the harbor in
Malta where she was vacationing.
There’s more than one way
to skin a photo, however. While
the Quick Selection Tool method
was a great innovation in recent
generations of Photoshop, some of
the old school methods still work.
Following are instructions for a
system my students use when the
preferred method just isn’t working out.
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1
Gary Clites
has been technology columnist for Adviser Update
for over a dozen years. He
served for over a decade
as president of the Maryland-DC Scholastic Press
Association, received a
Columbia Gold Key Award
in 2008 and was a 2004
Distinguished Adviser in
the DJNF National Journalism Teacher of the Year
program. His first novel,
“Seneca Wood,” was published this year. There is
an archive of his articles
on his website, www.
garyclites.com. He can be
reached at [email protected].
yellow
the most commonly used design
elements in newspaper, magazine
and yearbook design. They can
add both to the look of a page and
to the meaning of a photo by isolating the part of an image your
students want to emphasize. That
said, far too many of the cutouts
in student media end up as jagged
messes with either hunks of the
subject missing or chunks of the
background peeking through.
Often, this creative design element which should elevate the
page actually ends up dragging
it down. There are two reasons
for this. Many students are never
taught how to use Photoshop to
its full advantage, and the currently recommended method
of extracting an image from its
background in the program, while
useful and refined, doesn’t work
well for every photo.
Time constraints make it hard
for journalism teachers to cover
all the skills students need for
this job - both extracting an image
in Photoshop and using layers to
create a new image (like a collage
or other photo illustration). These
are skills, however, that are so
useful they deserve the effort.
In my own classroom, students
for years have done a “Where’s
Mr. Clites?” project. We fill a file
with various head shots of me.
Students are then charged with
going onto the Internet, finding
an interesting photo, then cutting out and placing my head into
the picture. (Don’t worry about
copyright. It is waived for material used for purely in-class educational assignments.) There are
points and prizes involved, and
the students learn how to better
use Photoshop as well as about
the dangers of photo manipulation.