Remove a uniformly-colored background with Photoshop.
Chroma keying is the process of removing a specific color from an image so that another image behind it will show through. This technique is commonly employed by television meteorologists, who stand in front of a green or blue backdrop that is later removed with chroma keying to allow a weather map to show through. Apply the chroma key effect to still images in Adobe Photoshop with the Color Range selection feature.
Instructions
1. Launch Photoshop and open the picture you want to chroma key.
2. Press "M" to select the marquee tool. Choose "All" from the "Select" menu or press Ctrl-A to select the entire image.
3. Right-click the image and choose "Layer via Cut." This will separate the image from the "Background" layer and allow you to remove parts of it.
4. Choose "Color Range" from the "Select" menu. A new window appears.
5. Move your cursor over the image behind the "Color Range" window (move it aside if you can't see the image). The cursor changes to the symbol of the Eyedropper tool. Click the image in the color region you intend to remove. The small image in the "Color Range" window changes to give you a preview of the selection. Choose "Grayscale" from the "Selection Preview" drop-down menu to show this same preview on the image itself behind the window.
6. Set the "Fuzziness" slider to 100, then increase or decrease its value and observe the change in the preview image. Ideally, the foreground of your image will appear sharply defined in black against a white background. If there are dark artifacts in areas you want removed from the image, move the slider to the right. If you can discern internal details of the foreground, move the slider to the left.
7. Click "OK" to dismiss the "Color Range" window and implement the selection you specified. The "marching ants" (animated dashed line) effect appears to highlight the selected area. Press "Delete" or choose "Clear" from the "Edit" menu to remove the selection. Place another picture on a layer behind the current one to test the chroma key effect, or save the image as a Photoshop document to use it in other compositions.
Tags: Color Range, Color Range window, Range window, chroma effect, from image, from Select, from Select menu
