Removing a subject from the background

People have been asking me how I take the subject from the background and I figure this will be a good tutorial about one way of many to do it.

This is just the way I do it, there are multiple ways but this is the way I feel is the best.

Step 1.Open the image in photoshop/gimp of what you want to work on. I use either CS3 or CS5.
I've never used gimp but everyone says its the same so, this may apply for gimp also.
you will need to have a background layer underneath your image, you can press ctrl+j and then paint the background white.



Step 2. Click new layer mask(1) and you should see a new white square pop up beside you picture layer(2).
You need to have your brush tool and a small pixel size.
And select the black color(3) and start painting around the subject(4) painting over anything you dont want to keep.
I prefer this method because if you paint over something when you first start and then when you get done and you've realized your mistake you just switch colors to white and you can paint it back in.


Step 3. Continue this method all the way around your subject,
i zoom in a good amount and take my time(20 min on this image) because it really does make a difference.
also make your border pretty thick to make step 4 easier.



Step 4. Select a bigger size brush and make your border bigger and then start painting everything away.



When done if you want to make sure you got everything off the image, change the backround color to gray or black and the missed areas will show up. and if you want to make a layer with out the mask, create new layer, select both the new layer and the image and right click merge layers.