Remove Green Chroma key background in Photoshop CS3

<p>Can someone provide step-by-step instructions for removing the Green Chroma key background in Photoshop CS3 without it looking like a cut out and choppy around the edges? One of my subjects has blonde hair which is making this especially difficult.<br>

Any help would be greatly appreciated.<br>

Thanks,<br>

Joe</p>

<p>First thing is how good is the shot? If you have shadows you can run into problems. If you don't have enough pixels, you'll get the choppy look. There are a few ways to do this, but if there is no other green in the photo, the simplest way is to just use the magic wand, select a section of green and then choose Select -> similar from the menu to get the rest. You could use the extraction tool, but expect to take some time to really work at this. Maybe a couple of hours. You may have to get down to pixel level to remove what you want. Remember, pixels are squares. Zoom in until you see them individually and you can remove at will. Or you can buy a plugin. Stuff like this takes time and people generally want a quick fix. This doesn't happen and this is what separates the pros apart.</p>

<p>Another solution (if there is no green reflection in the hair) is... Take the bg you want copy > paste onto you image make a layer mask then lower the opacity of the new bg (layer) til' you can see you subject and start painting he/she away leaving only the new bg(you'll have to lower and raise the opacity to get a final look)...you must be very careful around the edges...once you have it the way you like it then aplly some blurring to that layer. Then go back to the original layer and do curves, brightness or whatever to make it pop....<br>

There are lots of little tricks to make this look correct...it would take longer to type than to actually do it.<br>

Good Luck</p>

 

<p>Why not just post a smaller shot and we'll see what we can do. But thats the issue with a lot of shots out there,people want quick results that look great without the work. I'm sure it can probably be fixed but like it was said it takes work.<br>

I guess it comes down to how much time and work you want to put it,thats what will determine the final outcome. Like Mr Anderson says "Nothing is Easy "</p>

<p>Joe: Here is the basic and quick and easy way to do it. I've done it by the thousands very quickly for my school photos.<br>

1 select-color range-it will open up a small black and white high contrast window.<br>

2.click on the green area, either in the photo or in the black and white window.<br>

3. push the slider in the black and white window to get a high contrast photo of the background white and the people black. With practice, you will learn to get this perfect. Pay attention to what the slider does and soon you will be an expert at it.<br>

4. the green will be selected, so you need to inverse the selection (select, inverse) or shift- trl- I.<br>

5. copy<br>

6. go into the background photo<br>

7 paste<br>

8 transform to size properly and you have the people on the new backgroun.<br>

I have written an action to do the above steps and with one click, I was able to move the people to the new background and all I had to do was transform to size and move the people where I wanted them on the background. It gets better as you do more and it gets faster. Practice will improve your technique so that you can do as like a master.<br>

Goood luck!<br>

Abe</p>