6 Replies Latest reply: Mar 2, 2014 1:02 PM by Bill Hunt RSS

    Background clutter

    heather Iles Community Member

      How do I get rid of background clutter.  I have a picture of a motor bike in a garage with all the usual garage things in the background.  How can I delete the background by isolating the bike, deleting the clutter and choosing a nutural coloured background by the touch of a few buttons.  I have looked at lots of Adobe tutorials and this is not covered.  I would have thoughts that this could be done in layers with the background acting as one layer and then deleting this.  Of course you can see I am no expert at layers, but I can follow instructions.

       

      Help

       

      P.S.  How can you get one one from the photoshop elements 11 team to answer our questions?

        • 1. Re: Background clutter
          Sulaco Community Member

          This is the Photoshop forums, go here instead if you want help with Elements : http://forums.adobe.com/community/photoshop_elements

          • 2. Re: Background clutter
            heather Iles Community Member

            I did in the first place.  Surely I am not the only person who has asked this question.

            • 3. Re: Background clutter
              Sulaco Community Member

              What you want to do can be done in many different ways and it's usually not as easy as "by the touch of a few buttons". It's very dependant on how your images looks, resolution etc. Posting the picture in question is a good idea, as was already suggested by another user here. There is no short and easy answer to your query! If I was you I would head over to Adobe TV/YouTube and have a look at some tutorials on how layers and masking works in Elements.

               

              And since Photshop and Photoshop Elements are quite different; this question belongs in the Elements forum!

              • 4. Re: Background clutter
                heather Iles Community Member

                Thanks  Sulaco for that.  I now realise that it is not easy.   I tried to attach the photo but it was too big and didn't know how to reduce the size, so gave up.  It is not an important picture, but I thought it would make the perfect picture to practice on.  You don't learn anything from the easy ones.  That is why all the videos I looked at with deletions didn't really help me.

                 

                I had looked at you tube, but not in masking.  I looked at some of their layers,  That is when I thought that the deleting might be done in layering.

                 

                I will keep at this and let you know how I get on.

                 

                Thanks for your trouble.

                 

                H

                • 5. Re: Background clutter
                  Bill Hunt CommunityMVP

                  Heather,

                   

                  Since you are using Photoshop Elements 11 (different program, than Photoshop), I will Move your post to that very active, and helpful forum. Your link, and any e-mail subscriptions will follow.

                   

                  Good luck,

                   

                  Hunt

                   

                  [Moved to Photoshop Elements Forum]

                  • 6. Re: Background clutter
                    Bill Hunt CommunityMVP

                    Heather,

                     

                    For attaching an Image to the forum Reply, you can use the little "camera icon," in the Forum Editing Screen, so long as it's a JPEG, or PNG. Also, attaching Images is usually not possible, if doing the Reply via e-mail, or from a mobile app. One can do it, however, if they access the forum via a Web browser.

                     

                    If you can let others see what you need to edit out, it will be very useful.

                     

                    Also, PsElements has some different functions, than does Photoshop, so there might be a simple way to do what you want.

                     

                    Good luck,

                     

                    Hunt