Removing background from images

[Alex Ross]

Hi,

I am designing a catalog however the photos have a background, for
example the pictures are of shoes but i can see the table the shoe is
sitting on and the background behind the shoe, is there a way to cut
the shoes out in Photoshop so the background is removed?

Thanks

[RFH Reseller: nick]

Depends very much on the tones/textures in the image. If the edges of the shoe are quite well defined, you may find the 'Extract…' option, under the 'Filter' menu, gives the best results.

[RFH Reseller: petemasson]

I don't have an "extract filter"? Hmm.

Normally, I use the selection tools to draw around the object (magic wand is good), and fine tune with the add/subtract from selection, then delete the background (you can inverse selection if you have selected the object rather than the background). Magic wand works best on whichever is most uniform - background or object. It's also worth going over some of the sharper edges with the eraser tool, with a slightly soft brush so that you get a gentle anti-alias with the background.

It's also very worthwhile thinking when taking the photos - if you can, give the object a contrasting background (white will be good, unless the shoes are white!)