Removing background from an explosion

[YahavN1070]

Hi there.

So I've been going through some explosion That I need to buy for my project and came through this set: Collections_PK LandMines . This set is great for what I'm searching so I bought it but that's not what I'm here to talk about. My question is .. How did they manage to remove that gradient background from the explosion  so good (the explosion is a live footage not a photo)? I mean when I try to remove a background even if it's only one color, it turns out so bad.. Please explain how they

removed the background.Thanks

[Roei Tzoref]

for removing the sky, try the extract effect, use blue as the channel and drag the white slider. Then drag the down arrow for softness. To learn More about matte extraction try the keying course by Mark Christiansen on LYNDA.com.

[Rick Gerard]

I tried key light on your posted sample image and it did a really good job with just a couple of tweaks after sampling the blue near the center of the frame just right of the explosion.

[YahavN1070 · Accepted solution]

Thanks guys you really helped me!!

[michaelp798]

As a new photograper, your post helps me a lot.