April 11, 2010
how to do photo matting in photoshop CS4
There used to be a plugin named Extract. but it is not by default installed. so download optional installation @ http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/thankyou.jsp?ftpID=4047&fileID=3768
installation is simple , copy the plugin file to the plugin folder->filter of photoshop application.
after that, open a photo and choose extract from manu under filter. use highlight tool to draw the boundaries and the use fill tool to fill the foreground, thereafter click ‘Ok’.. job is done. Note: donot draw too wide boundary using highlight tool, the narrow it is, the better your matting is.
Although there is quite a lot research on photo matting and they have much better result. The photoshop one is still very easy to use and fast.
If you cannot get the matting properly, please read this instruction with figure: http://www.photoshopcafe.com/tutorials/cutout/cutout.htm
update 2/12/2010: new plugins download here (for cs5, this is extractplus for windows) http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4688