Photoshop
Elements 3 Tutorial
Extract Object
There are several ways to cutout (extract)
objects from the background of photos so you can
use them in other projects depending on the
complexity of the object and the contrast of the
background. Two of the most popular methods for
extraction are shown here.
Method 1 - If the object is simple and the
background is high contrast you can use the
background eraser tool and select a round brush
at 100% opacity to paint it out. Just paint
along the edge of the object and completely
erase the unwanted areas. This takes some
practice and patience.
Once the
background has been erased, all you have left is
the object that you can then clean up the
background pixels with the standard eraser tool,
crop to fit and save in a
transparent format.
Method 2 - Use the polygonal lasso
tool to trace along the edges of the object you
want to cut out. This tool will automatically
close the area when you return to the start of
the area. Zoom in on the picture to enlarge the
area you want to cut out so you can see the
edges clearly then just trace and click around
the edges until you have the object completely
selected. You'll know it has been completely
selected when you see 'marching ants' around the
object.
The quick way to do this is to hit 'ctrl + shift
+ I' which will invert the selection to the
background. Then just hit your 'delete' key to
delete the background. All you should have
showing now is your cutout selection.
Alternately, you can select 'Layer | New Layer |
Layer via copy' to put your selection on a new
layer. To see it, turn off visibility on the
background layer. You can clean up stray pixels
around the edges with the eraser tool if needed.
And remember, you can always undo your changes
by hitting 'ctrl + z' if you need to back track.
Crop the area to fit the cutout and save with
transparent background. Then you can use the
extracted object multiple times to create a new
graphic.
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Polygonal Lasso
Brush
Tools
Eraser 
Healing Brushes
Crop Tool