Please help...Change White Photo Background to Transparent

[TangerineTots]

Trying to find the simplest way to change jewelry photo backgrounds from white (as photographed) to transparent for print and web layout. I am on a Mac and have the entire Adobe Creative Suite so open to application options. I have tried the Preview application, but the gold chain and gemstones are so fine that it's really hard to pick up all the white without accidentally deleting some of the necklace itself. Hoping there is a quick trick that only involves a handful of steps as I have a lot of these to do.

Thanks in advance for your assistance!

[Chuck Uebele]

Is this a RAW image? If so, I would make a copy much darker, so it would be easier to detect the BG. Then you can move the mask to your original image. Using a darker image, L*A*B* color might be a good starting place to create a mask from the B channel to separate the yellow of the gold and the more bluish bg.

[TangerineTots]

Chuck, Thanks for the quick reply. I am not too proficient with Photoshop and regret that I cannot follow your instructions easily as I am still learning how to use layers and the drop down options. Was hoping for a quick fix, but maybe there isn't one.

[Chuck Uebele]

Yea, your colors are so subtle in the image that you posted. If you have the RAW image, you can better increase the contrast between the bg and the necklace to help separate them.

[Trevor.Dennis]

You already asked this question in this thread, and got a number of answers.  One poster went so far as to create a video just to help you.  How do you think this is any different to the last thread you started?  You say you have a number of these to process.  Did you take the photographs?  If yes, than that's where you should be focussing your attention.  Get help on taking the pictures again so that they are easy to lift from the background. 

Help Recoloring Gold Necklace

[TangerineTots]

Yes...thank you for your help with my previous question which was how to edit the gold leaf. I had a proof from the photo studio when I posed that question and wanted to make sure the color correction could be made in Photoshop if my client purchased the actual photos.

My client has since purchased the hi-res photos and we are hoping the remove the studio "white" background and just have a transparent background behind the necklace. Perhaps we need to shoot everything on a black background so it's easier to separate.

[Chuck Uebele]

A black background would relect black in the jewelry, and would cause other problems.

[Trevor.Dennis]

Definitely use a white background.  It is the lighting that needs some thought though. 

Lift the jewellery off the background. 

Put a light on the background (needs to be a strobe to ensure daylight WB. 

A large light source camera left and watch the exposure as the image above is badly over exposed.

A large white reflector camera right.

You can get the light nice and close which helps with the size of the light.

The lit background needs to be only slightly larger than the jewellery.  If you make it too big and it is lit to make it full white, the light will tend to wrap around shiney elements like the chain.  What I do is have a rail between background and subject with black curtains which I can slide to create the perfect window width.

You can actually do this with a DSLR and onboard speedlight by directing the strobe at a sheet of foam board. and flagging the strobe to prevent any direct light from the strobe hitting the subject.  This bracelet was photographed with a similar method in a lighting workshop I ran a few years ago.  I demonstrated how you could get a near identical result from a single onboard speedlite, to using a bunch of expensive studio lighting.